The DePauw women's swim team came in second out of eight teams at the DePauw Invitational held at the Erdmann Natatorium in the Lilly Center this past weekend.
They lost by one point to Wittenberg University.
The single point came down to the final event of the meet - the 400-yard freestyle relay. DePauw came in behind Wittenberg by eight one-hundredths of a second.
"We challenged ourselves by placing a freshman on both the first leg and the last leg of the race, and sandwiching them with upperclassmen," head coach Matt Ense said. "But, I wouldn't change the order at all if I was doing it over again."
Ense also said that the 400 was their best race of the weekend, right up there with the 200 freestyle relay.
The 200 squad of Reese Edwards, Allison Kirby, Nicole Rossillo and Caroline Bridges finished in second as well.
"I thought they were great races," Ense said. "Yeah, we were on the short end, but in the long run, I think it's going to benefit us."
The team used this past weekend as a jumping point to the rest of their season as they starts to look toward the NCAC conference meet.
This was the first multiple-day meet the team encountered so far this season, and it definitely seems to have benefitted them.
"Having it over two days was a good thing, and it almost goes into our favor the longer the meet goes," Ense said. "We got better each session this weekend. We had four sessions, and by that fourth, we were really getting into our groove. Most teams will kind of fade and get worn out while we get our energy up and move forward."
The conference meet will be over a three-day span.
In addition to having primed themselves for the multiple sessions each day, DePauw used the week prior to their advantage by lessening slightly the workload in preparation.
"We rested a little and went down in our training," Ense said. "The team was a little fresher, especially having had a mental break over the holiday break."
But even though the Tigers did not finish in the ideal situation, they came as close as a team can get.
"Losing to Witt will put a little sour taste in our mouth," Ense said. "But it gave us a little more motivation looking toward conference."