Over the weekend, the Chicago men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams took on Wash U and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a tri-meet of nationally ranked teams. Against the strong competition, the women emerged victorious in the tri-meet, while the men finished second to Wash U.
The No. 11 Chicago women defeated No. 7 Wash U and No. 13 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps by scores of 159–139 and 180.5–119.5, respectively.
A strong showing by the Chicago divers compelled the women’s team to victory. Highlighted by third-year Agnes Lo, the Maroons swept the top three spots in the one-meter and three-meter dives. First-year Elizabeth Cron captured first place in the three-meter dive with a score of 291, while Lo and first-year Alice Saparov posted NCAA provisional qualifying scores as well. In the one-meter dive, Lo once again cemented herself in the school’s history books, besting her previous school record with a score of 302.80, while Cron recorded another NCAA provisional qualifying score in the one-meter dive.
In the pool, the efforts of the talented underclassmen secured the victory. First-year Alice Ye won the 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard butterfly, adding a second-place finish in the 400-yard IM for good measure. In the 200 yard butterfly, Ye was joined by second-year Hadley Ackerman in second place and third-year Michaela Mullison in third. Second-year Gillian Gagnard won the 100-yard backstroke, and third-year Nicole Garcia won the 100-yard butterfly.
In a highly competitive and charged environment, the Chicago women reinforced their standing as a top contender this season with the win. “Our meet against Wash U is always a high-energy meet. I think that adding [Claremont-Mudd-Scripps] as an additional challenge really forced us to focus and swim even faster. Coming out of it with a win for the women is really exciting, and I know that will carry on through our next few weeks of training up until the Phoenix Fall Classic,” said Gagnard.
The No. 9 Chicago men faced a similarly competitive meet, beating No. 12 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 156–132 before falling to No. 10 Wash U 197–83.
Third-year Taye Baldinazzo won the individual 200-yard freestyle and finished runner-up in the 500-yard freestyle, the event in which he holds the school record. The other winner was the Maroons’ 200-yard freestyle quartet of second-year Jonathan Mendley, third-year Byrne Litschgi, fourth-year Winston Wang, and fourth-year Alexander Farrell.
Both men and women now shift their focus to the Phoenix Fall Classic meet, which runs from November 16 through November 18. It will be their last meet of the fall quarter before resuming competition against Lewis University and Olivet Nazarene on January 18.
