UW-Eau Claire’s men and women swimmers dueled and defeated UW-Whitewater on Jan. 27. The women won 177-56. The men had a score of 138.5 to Whitewater’s 87.5.

The Blugolds experienced huge drops in time for many of the team members.

Freshman Krista DeJarlais dropped almost four seconds in her 200-yard backstroke making her the Blugolds’ second fastest backstroker, said coach Rob Welcher.

DeJarlais went from a personal best 2 minutes 22.01 seconds in the backstroke to a time of 2:18.95. The time was good enough to give DeJarlais a first-place finish.

In the 200 freestyle, DeJarlais experienced another large drop in her time. She went from having a personal best of 2:07.2 in the freestyle to a 2:03.52. The time gave DeJarlais her second first place of the meet.

“This was a great meet for me,” DeJarlais said. “The races seemed easy. I had no idea I was swimming that fast.”

For the men’s team, freshman Brian Bartlett had the largest drop in time improving from a 2:17.18 in the 200 butterfly to 2:13.26.

“(Bartlett) had a great race,” Welcher said. “He didn’t win, but he had a really big drop.”

Junior Danny Noonan also dropped time in his 200 butterfly taking fourth place in the event with a time of 2:17.19.

“We switched up a lot of the events,” Welcher said. “There were some events that I wanted people to swim and to get a time in so we can see how well we’re doing.”

In one-meter diving action, senior Sara Bates took first with a score of 215.30. Bates also took the three-meter diving round with a score of 229.95.

For the men, freshman Dan VonFeldt took both the one-meter and three-meter diving events. In the one-meter, VonFeldt earned a score of 217.05, and in the three-meter, his 184.40 score was good enough for first place.

The men’s and women’s 400 freestyle and medley relays both took first place honors.

The Eau Claire women took first place in all events except the 1000 freestyle. In the 200 freestyle, the women took first and second place. They repeated that performance in the 50 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 200 butterfly and 500 freestyle.

They took first through third place in the 100 freestyle and 200 breastroke.

The men were able to capture first places in all but four events. In the 200 freestyle, the men took first and second place. The first three places in the 200 IM were taken by Eau Claire.

The Blugolds will next challenge UW-Oshkosh at 1 p.m. Saturday at McPhee. They will then take on the rest of the WIAC beginning Feb. 15 at the the conference meet in Oshkosh.

“We’re really feeling positive going into conference,” Welcher said. “We’ve got decent times all across the board; we can match up with the best.