The Laker's Men's and Women's Swimming Teams opened their season with a pair of duals against Iowa Central and Barton Community College.
The Women's team fell to Iowa Central 131 to 43 with wins by Liz Crewe-Brown in the 100 backstroke and Juliana Villa Rodriguez in the 100 freestyle. Villa Rodriguez was also a close second in the 200 backstroke, finishing just 0.10 seconds behind first place.
The Laker Women won seven of nine individual events and led Barton midway in the meet, but didn't have enough depth at the end, losing 71-92. Villa Rodriguez won the 100 and 200 freestyles, Crewe-Brown won the 50 free and 100 back, Mari Valentin swept the 1000 and 500 freestyles and Gabi Reis won the 200 IM and placed second in the 100 breaststroke. Coach Peters noted, "We did everything we could to almost pull out a win against Barton. It came down to Barton beating us in the Medley Relay and not having enough swimmers to enter more than one person in each event. I'm proud and impressed of the efforts the women put forth tonight. Mari Valentin really came through by swimming both the distance events."
The Men's team lost 24-160 against Iowa Central and 21-148 against Barton. Garrett Nelson swam a lifetime best 50 freestyle split of 22.84 on the 200 freestyle relay. Juan Briseno and Simon Broadwater also had lifetime best performances and Gabriel Carmona and Jacob Bohnert had strong performances on the evening. "The men swam much stronger than the scores appear. We have been working on many new stroke techniques in practice and their efforts to integrate those techniques took away from some of their races. The changes they are making will pay off later in the season," Coach Peters remarked after the meet.
NJCAA season rankings have Villa Rodriquez 1st in the 100 freestyle, 2nd in the 50 backstroke, 8th in the 50 freestyle, and 10th in the 200 freestyle. Mari Valentin is 2nd in the 1000 free and 5th in the 500 free. Liz Crew-Brown is 5th in the 100 backstroke. Gabi Reis is 4th in the 100 breaststroke and 6th in the 200 IM. Gabriel Carmona is 10th in the 100 breaststroke and Jacob Bohnert is 6th in the 100 fly and 8th in the 200 IM.
The Laker Swimmers are idle until October 27th when they travel to Saint Mary's University in Winona, MN.