On Saturday, Feb. 22, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women’s swimming and diving team secured its 22nd Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Association (WIAC) championship win.
At the meet UWL competed against UW-Eau Claire, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stevens Point and UW-Whitewater. The top two competitors projected were UWL and UW-Eau Claire.
When asked about the teams’ thoughts going into the meet, Head Coach Steve Mohs said, “We looked at [the psych sheet] and thought we had a really good shot at being at least one of the top two teams.”
The first day of competition featured an unexpected hiccup when the power mysteriously went out. When maintenance came, they said the power back wouldn’t be back on until 11:00 a.m., almost three hours after the incident.
A typical championship format gives swimmers the chance to perform twice, once in the preliminaries and once in the finals.
Athletes try to qualify to be one of the top 16 swimmers in each event for the chance to swim for more points in the final session.
Because of the power outage, the coaches of the teams competing and the meet director decided instead of a typical championship format, they would do a time final.
Timed finals only require swimmers to swim once – their singular time determines how the points are factored.
Even with the sudden new format, the Eagles performed well. Jordy Hahlen, Zoey Rank, Natalie Austin and Libby Cleveland took first place in the 200-yard medley relay.
UWL held the top four spots on the diving side, with Joanne Banaszak taking first place.
Hahlen also captured the 200-yard backstroke title with Autumn Seebach coming in second.
In the 200-yard breaststroke, UWL had five of the top seven finishers as placed second, Makenzie Wallace third, Rank fourth, Austin sixth and Callie Klepp seventh.
Before entering the WIAC championship, the Eagles knew it would be a battle, with UWL having lost the last two meets against Eau Claire. However, the Eagles’ efforts paid off, finishing the meet with a total of 1,018 points, while UW-Eau Claire was second with 855. The maximum score possible is 1,136 points.
“We don’t typically talk about winning, we talk about performing – being able to swim fast in the morning and find a spot in finals. Then it’s all about battling at night for more points,” Mohs said.
Following the meet, Rank was honored as the WIAC Newcomer of the Year, while Banaszak was recognized as the WIAC Diver of the Meet for the second consecutive season.
Banaszak’s achievement in sweeping the one-meter and three-meter diving titles at this year’s championships was particularly remarkable, considering she had been recovering from a broken foot the previous year.
“I have to pinch myself a little bit because I feel like it wasn’t real…it seemed like it was almost a perfect meet put together,” Mohs said.
After a conference championship win, Mohs has a tradition of going to Linda’s Bakery in West Salem to get donuts and bring them back for the department. He emphasized the importance of sharing wins with others saying, “The best things in life are shared.”
Heading into the postseason, four divers went to the NCAA Division III Diving Regional in Granville, Ohio. The meet was on the weekend of Feb. 28 – Mar. 1 with the top eight divers of the meet punching their tickets to nationals.
In the women’s three-meter competition, Madeline Weber finished 13th, Banaszak was 14th, Hannah Martini was 15th and Madison DeBernardo was 23rd. A total of 33 women competed in the three-meter dive.
On the swimming side, four swimmers will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina from Mar. 19-22 at the Greensboro Aquatic Center to compete at nationals.
Halen, Rank, Austen and Cleveland will compete in the 200-yard medley relay, 400-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay. Hahlen will also swim in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard backstroke. Rank will compete in the 200 Individual Medley.
A full schedule of the events and a livestream are available on the NCAA official website.
