Posted: 10/22/09

The UW-Eau Claire men and women’s swimming and diving teams went into their season-opening meet against Minnesota State University-Mankato facing plenty of distractions.

Not only was the meet on the Friday before homecoming, but many of the women’s team members had flu-like symptoms. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the team to get their game faces on.

“When the men’s 200-yard medley relay just barely beat Mankato that . got all of us fired up,” sophomore Nicole Dorvinen said. “I think a lot of people forgot that homecoming was starting and that it was the weekend . all of us were so pumped.”

The women’s team finished with 134 points while the NCAA Division II Mavericks recorded 109. The team secured eight first place finishes as Dorvinen won three events to lead the way for the Blugolds.

On the men’s side, the Blugolds picked up a 124-117 victory. Eau Claire recorded six first place finishes on the night with a number of other top-three finishes. Junior Ben Macalalad took the top spot in the 1,000-yard freestyle after finishing with a time of 10 minutes 29.74 seconds. In the 200-yard individual medley, sophomore Jonathan Poppele secured a first place finish.

“We haven’t beaten Mankato in years . so it was really exciting overall,” Dorvinen said.

Coach Art Brandt said he was happy to see what the new members of the teams could do along with the overall positive attitude.

“It was a really focused team,” Brandt said of the Blugolds. “Half of my team has the flu right now . it had a lot of close races and really no one knew till the end who was going to win that meet. (The Blugolds) were ready to roll.”

On Tuesday Brandt said he cancelled practice for the first time ever in order to let his team rest and let those with flu symptoms get back to good health. Luckily the Blugolds have some time before their next competition on Oct. 30. The divers will compete against UW-Stevens Point and St. Cloud State (Minn.) in the McPhee Center. The swimmers will then head to St. Cloud for a triangular with the same teams the following day.

“They want to get better,” Brandt said. “We’ll work on the little things and start working on our pace now for the distance races.”