The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Swim & Dive team held its annual Barry Schockmel Intra-Squad Preseason Meet on Saturday, Sept. 22. The athletes utilize the meet to test their abilities and the work put in during the off-season, and the coaching staff use the meet to understand how far the athletes are willing to push themselves in order to succeed.
The meet began with the women’s 1 meter and 3m dive, and men’s 1m and 3m dive. In the women’s 1m dive, Maddie Weber placed first with a score of 233.70. Hannah Martini and Joanne Banaszak placed second and third, both coming within less than two points of Weber. Martini and Banaszak scored 232.65 and 232.35 respectively.
For the men’s 3m dive, Tony McNiff placed first, scoring 277.35 points. The closest competitor to McNiff was Evan Zimdars, who scored 199.43 points. McNiff also placed first in the men’s 1m dive, scoring 242.40 points.
The swimming events began with the women’s 200-yard freestyle, won by Ava Pulvermacher with two minutes and 0.86 seconds. Emily Schoenbrodt placed second with a time of 2:01.43 and Autumn Seebach placed third, finishing in 2:02.92. Ben Collins won the 200 Yard Freestyle for the Men, in 1:50.46.
Libby Cleveland won the women’s 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.89. The men’s 50-yard freestyle was won by Blake Nelson with a time of 21.44 seconds. Pulvermacher dominated the 1000-yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 11:28.82, more than 45 seconds ahead of her closest competitor. Davin Evans won the men’s 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:44.90 and placed 35 seconds ahead of the closest swimmer.
For the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay, Zoey Rank, Pulvermacher, Paige Rundahl, and Cleveland took the win with a time of 1:40.85. For the Men, the team of Nelson, Nick Ellerd, Sean Gillett, and Jesse Hammes took the victory in 1:27.14.
The women’s 500-yard freestyle ended with Pulvermacher on top once again,
completing the swim in 5:28.99. Collins also found himself on the podium again after winning the Men’s 500 Yard Freestyle in 5:17.67.
In the women’s 100-yard freestyle, Cleveland found herself in first place again, taking the race by a margin of 1.5 seconds with a time of 55.22. For the Men, this event was dominated by Hames, with a time of 49.70 and a similar victory margin to Cleveland.
The women’s 50-yard breaststroke resulted in a win for Callie Klepp, in 31.18. For the men, Tyler Hartmann took the win over Collins, who was less than half a second behind. Hartmann’s time was 27.33.
Klepp also won the women’s 100-yard breaststroke, in 1:08.32. For the men’s 100-yard breaststroke, Collins got revenge and finished with a time of 1:00.99, beating Hartmann by 0.55 seconds.
The men’s 50 and 100-yard butterfly were dominated by Jonah Elfers, who won the 50-yard race in 23.22 and the 100-yard race in 58.69. In the women’s races, places were swapped by Shefali Ramakrishnan and Natalie Austin. Ramakrishnan won the 50-yard swim in 27.06 by just 0.13 seconds. Austin won the 100-yard swim in 1:00.98 with Ramakrishnan finishing just under a second behind at 1:01.96.
Jordy Hahlen won the women’s 50-yard backstroke in 28.09 and Seebach won the women’s 100-yard backstroke in 1:00.06, almost 1.5 seconds ahead of the next closest swimmer. For the Men, Hammes took both the 50 and 100-yard backstroke, winning in 24.74 and 55.20.
The meet concluded with the relay events, known as ‘Medleys’.
The women’s 400-yard medley was won by Seebach, Ramakrishnan, Pulvermacher, and Mckenzie Wallace. The group swam a time of 4:07.95. The winning squad for the men’s 400-yard medley was made up of Hammes, Collins, Jacob Ketterling and Blake Nelson. The race was won with a time of 3:40.16.
The last relay of the meet was the 200-yard medley. For the Women, Seebach and Ramakrishnan swam again as the first and third legs of the relay, with Rank swimming the second leg and Cleveland on the anchor leg. The group finished with a time of 1:52.16. For the Men, the winning relay team consisted of Nathan Gehm, Hartmann, Elfers and Alex Starr, who finished the relay in 1:38.37.
UWL Swim and Dive hosts their annual Wayde Mulhern Alumni Meet, the final meet of the preseason on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 9 a.m. The team will begin its regular season at home in Mitchell Hall on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 1 p.m. The rest of the schedule can be found on the UWL Athletics website. The full results of the Barry Schockmel Intra-Squad Preseason Meet can be found here.
