Senior Alex Grissom pulls himself out of the water after completing his leg of the 400m Free- style
Relay.The relay of Blake Lehmann, Kurt Swieter, Grissom and Sam McManus placed
second with a time of 3:098.82.
The Tigers hosted the University of Indianapolis this past Saturday at Erdmann Natatorium. Both teams would fall to the Jaguars, with the men losing 95-199 and the women losing 132-152
While the men had already swam their home opener against Wabash two weeks ago, Saturday's meet would be the women's first home meet of the season.
Women’s head coach Hewitt noticed the difference, comparing the meet to their road trip to Missouri two weekends ago to take on Washington-St. Louis.
“For one thing, we didn’t have to get on a bus and go four hours into a different time zone and compete in the afternoon,” said Hewitt. “Everyone just wants to be able to compete in their own pool. It’s your own backyard.”
The Tigers were once again led by junior Angela Newlon, who finished first in the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:20:36), the 500 free (5:02.44) and the 200 individual medley (2:11.47).
Newlon set two pool records and one school record, which came in the 1,000-yard freestyle, an event she had never swam before.
DePauw also got strong performances from Morgan Graves, who won the 200 butterfly (2:17.20) and first-year Mary Woods, who finished first in the 100 fly (1:00.31).
Despite the loss, the standout performances give the Tigers momentum heading into the next weeks.
“I think everybody walked out of there knowing we were competitive,” said Hewitt. “It was kind of a nice bounce back meet for us, and I think it gives us some confidence, knowing we can compete with the right effort (and) the right training.”
The men’s team’s results consisted of a number of strong, second-place finishes, which included senior Alex Grissom in the 200-yard freestyle (1:45.10), senior Blake Lehmann in the 200 butterfly, sophomore David Freund in the 500 free (4:56.61) and first-year Adam Pircon in the 200 IM (1:59.78).
“Overall, I think the team performed well against U Indy,” said Freund. “They are a D2 team and we are at a point in our training where we are incredibly broke down and exhausted.”
Lehmann agreed.
“We went into the meet with the mindset of having some good racing opportunities,” said Lehmann. “We’re just going to continue to do what we’ve been doing, training hard and keeping a positive mindset.”
The two teams will swim again in two weeks on the 20th and 21st of November at the Patrick Woehnker Invitational in Crawfordsville, Indiana.