Strong efforts by both the men and the women’s squads earned swimming and diving a pair of wins tonight over Valparaiso.
Evansville’s men won by a final of 131-74 while the women’s team took the victory by a final of 152-33.
“I am very excited about the wins tonight, especially after the last few weeks of hard training,” head coach Rickey Perkins said. “We had some great swims. It was great to compete against someone else besides ourselves.”
Senior Michaela Kent had a successful evening. She took top honors in the 100 backstroke with a time of 59.22 followed closely by teammates Emma Gowdy and Taylor Davidson for a sweep in the event. Kent also teamed up with Alaina Sylvester, Kristen Myers, and Danielle Freeman for a victory in the 400 Medley Relay.
Senior Danielle Freeman also scored her share of points with victories in both the 50 and 100 Freestyle, with times of 24.12 and 53.78 respectively. Teammates Kent and freshman Emma Hennessy followed in second and third place for another event sweep in the 50. In the 100, freshman Kristy Kupfer edged out Crusader Paige Wright by .04 seconds to take second place with a time of 55.55
Freshman Aine Scholand picked up three wins of her own as well. Her time of 10:41.11 in the 1000 freestyle took first by a wide margin, with teammate Ashton Adams following in second with 11:00.76. Scholand went on to win the 500 freestyle as well with a 5:21.56, with Adams and sophomore Megan Schremp in second a third for yet another sweep. The 400 Freestyle Relay of Kupfer, Myers, Scholand, and Adams took the win as well in a final time of 3:43.38. In addition to both relays, Myers won her third event, the 400 IM, posting a 4:45.59.
Additional victories came for the women in the form of junior Kayla Aitken in the 100 Butterfly with a 1:01.90, and Alaina Sylvester in the 100 Breaststroke, touching in at a 1:10.96.
The men’s team matched the efforts of the women with a slew of victories of their own. Freshman Paul Cozzens picked up two individual wins in the 400 IM and the 100 Butterfly, clocking in at 4:16.55 and 53.02 respectively. He also combined his efforts with Dan O’Brien, Will Glasscock, and Matt Duke to win the 400 Medley Relay with a time of 3:35.46.
O’Brien, Glasscock, and Duke each took top honors as well. O’Brien edged out second place Crusader Max Penn in the 100 Backstroke with a final time of 54.12. Glasscock took a solid victory in the 100 breaststroke at a 1:01.58, and Duke took the 50 freestyle in a 22.18.
Freshman Brandt Hudson took all three of his races as well. The 1000 freestyle was won in a 10:10.12, and the 500 freestyle with 4:54.36. The Aces finished the meet with a final victory in the 400 Freestyle Relay. Hudson’s efforts, along with Everett Plocek, Jared Sutphin, and Blake Wheeler, clocked in at 3:14.80
The Aces are back in action at Boilermaker Aquatic Center tomorrow morning at noon EST.
