The UW-Eau Claire men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams faced off against the UW-Oshkosk Titans in their first official meet of the season at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14 in McPhee Physical Education Center.

According to Blugold Athletics, both the women’s team crushed the Titans with a score of 148-86, as well as the men’s team scoring 158-73.

Annie Ryder, the coach for both men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, said Saturday’s results were the best start to their dual meet season in recent years.

Ryder said the teams has had a tough couple of weeks of practice and they were able to get up and demonstrate some really fast swims and awesome diving.

“One of the best characteristics of this team is their willingness to do the work and it shows when they compete,” Ryder said.

Ryder said her goal for this season is to always make the teams faster than they were the week before.

“If we get everyone to swim faster, dive better from the bottom of our roster to the top of our roster, we are a tougher team to beat,” Ryder said.

Ben Koller, a fourth-year business administration student, participated in the 1-meter and 3-meter dive events and scored 275.85 and 298.08 respectively. These are qualifying scores for the NCAA Diving Zone meet, something Koller said he did not expect.

Koller said a team goal he would like to see accomplished this season is the men’s team winning the conference meet, as they have been very close the past two years.

“We are looking really good for our first meet. We have some new divers on the team this year and they all competed really really well at their first college meet which is awesome to see. I can’t wait for the rest of the season to see what we can accomplish,” Koller said.

Sydney McGuine, a fourth-year environmental public health student, said Saturday’s meet went better than expected.

“I would say we looked really strong for being so early in the season,” McGuine said.

 “For me personally, I was finally able to do a relay start which was super fun and I would say I was happy with the time as well.“

McGuine said one of the team goals she would like to see accomplished this season is for the women’s team to successfully defend their conference title.

“In terms of looking ahead after this first meet, I would say as a whole, our team is looking great. The energy on the deck, the great swims, the beautiful dives, all of this just from week one was great to see,” McGuine said.

The Blugolds’ next meet will be held at home again on Saturday, Oct. 28., this time hosting UW-Stevens Point. Diving events will begin at 9 a.m. and races will start at 1 p.m.

Davidsaver can be reached at [email protected].