The Maroons displayed prowess, strength, and skill in Saturday’s tri-meet hosted by DePauw this past Saturday in Greencastle, IN. The Chicago men and women both emerged victorious as they showed their competition what they are made of.
The men’s program was victorious over DePauw 125–105, and Calvin College 125–112. Meanwhile, the women defeated DePauw 162–80 and Calvin 180–63. In addition to these triumphs, the Maroon diving team earned multiple NCAA B cut scores. As the squad gets closer to championships, each individual athlete made his or her mark and exuded confidence, showing major potential for future success.
The men’s team raced to six victories for the day. Two of these fantastic finishes were provided by first-year Alexander Farrell, who placed first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.27 and the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.43.
The women enjoyed wins from third-year Maya Scheidl, who brought home victories in the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyles with times of 53.63 and 1:55.10, respectively. Third-year Alison Wall and first-year Christina Cheng added to the win total as well. Wall took the 200-yard individual medley and also contributed to the success of the 400-yard freestyle relay. Cheng placed first in the 200-yard breaststroke and won the 200-yard medley relay.
When asked about her impressive performance against DePauw and Calvin, Wall said, “I was happy with my individual performances. I went a career best time in the 200 IM, so I was very excited about that. I don’t get to swim that event very often, so it was fun to swim something different.”
In terms of the team’s overall performance, Wall said, “As a team, I believed that we performed very well. We are currently going through our toughest training of the season, so we are all tired and broken down. Even though we are broken down, we were still able to swim fast, have a dominating performance, and come out on top.”
As for the immediate future, Wall emphasized that the team is hard at work preparing for big meets later on. “[We are] preparing for the championship season by having really tough training,” the third-year said. “That may not seem like we are preparing, but the harder we work in practice now, the better the results will be when we rest for conference. We still have a couple of weeks of hard training before we start bringing the yardage down and resting. I think if we keep working hard in practice everyday and most importantly stay healthy, we will be ready to go for conference in a few weeks.”
As the season closes in on the championships, the team looks to make the final push to the end. Wall said, “My goals for the championships are to swim fast and be the most supportive teammate I can. Also, I think it would be great if I could qualify for NCAAs individually.”
The Maroons will be getting ready for their meet against Lake Forest and Olivet Nazarene this Saturday. The meet begins at 1 p.m.
