The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams wrapped up their seasons with three days of grueling competition at the WIAC Championships Thursday through Saturday at UW-Whitewater.

The men’s team grabbed third place for the second straight season, while the women finished fourth.

“The men swam exceptionally well and the women swam satisfactorily,” assistant coach Noel Ness said. “Overall, we’re really pleased.”

The Blugolds scored 821 points, 237 more than last season’s total.

UW-Stevens Point won its third consecutive WIAC title and racked up 1,190 points. UW-La Crosse took second with 959 points.

Even though they couldn’t get by La Crosse, most of the men swimmers were in top form.

“The men really dropped times,” said Ness, who is retiring after 37 years of coaching and officiating. “They were really zipping along.”

Senior Matt Oglesby won four gold medals, one silver medal and received the Max Sparger Scholar-Athlete Award.

Oglesby took first in the 200-yard individual medley and 100 backstroke, second in the 100 butterfly and was part of the 200 and 400 medley relay teams that took first.

Oglesby qualified for NCAA Div. III Nationals in the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly. He set a new WIAC record in the backstroke with a time of 50.99 seconds.

The 200 medley relay team of Oglesby, seniors Chris Smith and Kyle Gulbrandson and sophomore Matt Schuebel advanced to nationals thanks to its mark of 1 minute, 34.15 seconds.

The 400 medley relay team of Oglesby, Smith, Gulbrandson and senior Brent Witt took first with a time of 3:30.99, nearly eight seconds faster than any Blugolds’ time this season.

Smith trimmed more than 10 seconds off his season-best time in the 200 breaststroke to take second place with 2:13.09. He also captured second in the 200 individual medley (1:57.73) and third in the 100 breaststroke (59.82).

Other notable performances were turned in by the 200 freestyle relay team, which took second place in 1:26.69 and sophomore Mike Carroll, who took third in the 200 butterfly with a 2:01.93 mark.

Freshman Scott Heatwole took second in the three-meter diving event and third in the one-meter competition.

The women’s team, who finished second last year, scored 599 points to finish behind La Crosse (1,223 points), Stevens Point (1,216) and UW-Oshkosh (616).

“We were hoping to finish third,” sophomore Meghan McDonald said. “It turned out Oshkosh did a little better than we thought, but we’re pretty satisfied.”

After 14 of 20 events, the Blugolds and Oshkosh were tied for third with 457 points. The Titans pulled away Saturday, mostly because of their advantage in the breaststroke.

Junior Kristjana Marston won a silver medal for her effort in the 200 butterfly and a bronze for performance in the 200 individual medley. Her time of 2:14.92 in the butterfly was more than three seconds faster than her previous season best.

Marston also swam on the third-place 200 medley relay team with sophomores McDonald, Krista DeJarlais and Sara Schwartz
That team swam 1:55.95, its best time of the season.

Senior Kaici Burk placed third in the one-meter diving with a season-best 369 points.

The WIAC named Rob Welcher, who is in his third season with the Blugolds, coach of the year.