In three days, the women swimmers competed in 18 swimming events and two diving events at the WIAC Conference Swimming and Diving Championship.
The women finished with a team score of 727.5 points from the Feb. 15 to 17 meet. They lost to UW-Stevens Point, who took the crown with 836.5 points.
“Going into the meet we were really hoping that we could win,” freshman Meghan McDonald said. “Toward the end we realized we probably weren’t going to get first, but we kept swimming hard.”
The Blugolds took home two individual titles, in the 200-yard individual medley and the 400 individual medley.
Sophomore Kristjana Marston took first in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 13.12 seconds.
Senior Brianna Crowley, who also earned the Judy Kruckman Scholar Athlete award, took first in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:41.07. This time broke her old conference and school records.
Crowley took the 400 individual medley by about four seconds more than her closest opponent, freshman Liz VonFeldt who finished second with a time of 4:45.31.
“We swam some really awesome races,” McDonald said.
The women’s 400 freestyle relay team of junior Liz Halbur, Marston, McDonald and senior Jasmine Longhenry took second and made the NCAA “B” cut with a time of 3:38.35.
The 200 freestyle relay of Halbur, Longhenry, McDonald and freshman Krista DeJarlais also took second and made the NCAA “B” cut with a time of 1:38.08.
“We were a little hesitant about our tapering,” McDonald said. “We’re overall pretty happy with our performances.”
In diving, senior Amber Perry took second in the one meter and qualified for NCAA nationals, earning a score of 413.55.
“We really came together as a team during the year,” McDonald said. “We competed together and cheered for each other, the camaraderie was there.”