The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women’s swimming and diving team competed against UW-Eau Claire on Saturday, Nov. 1, in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles fought hard and secured their first win of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) season with a 183.5 to 116.5 victory.
In the first event, the 1-meter dive, the top three consisted of UWL’s Joanne Banaszak with a final score of 246.15, Hannah Martini with a score of 241.45 and Emma Lieb and with a score of 215.35.
The 200-yard medley relay team was won by UWL’s Shefali Ramakrishnan, Zoey Rank, Greta Wiskus and Libby Cleveland, with a final time of 1:49.30. The four woman team pulled ahead with a .12 second difference from UW-Eau Claire.
The 1000-yard freestyle was won by UW-Eau Claire’s Molly Hosack (10:59.24). The Eagles took third place in the women’s 1000-yard freestyle thanks to McKenna Biegler with a final time of 11:22.04.
When asked about the challenging aspects of diving, fourth year Martini said, “Definitely the mentality of it because you go into a dive it can really get in your head. And that’s why having such a supportive team is really helpful because it can very scary going for like your hardest dive then you hear all your teammates cheering for you and you’re like ‘yeah, I can do this.'”
When asked about her role as a captain Martini said, “being a captain I feel like I have a lot of encouragement to do with the underclassmen because it’s very difficult and everyone gets stressed a lot…but I feel like I should always be there for them and help them be in the best mindset they can.”
For those looking to support the Eagles in their future endeavors, UWL women’s swim and dive returns to action on Nov. 8. The complete schedule can be found on the UWL athletics website.
