The BG women’s swim team kicked off its season in dominating fashion by winning nine of 10 overall races against Akron and Youngstown State at Friday’s Tom Stubbs Relays.

“The team exceeded my expectations for today,” said coach Keri Buff. “We got the ball rolling right from the beginning.”

The Falcons came out strong in the first race, the 200-yard medley relay, with a win from the A team (1:48.25) and a second from the B team (1:52.56).

BG followed by that performance with a win in the 300-yard butterfly relay (2:57.94), easily beating Akron (3:03.04).

In the next race, the 300-yard backstroke relay, BG won by an even wider margin, defeating Akron 2:57.67 to 3:05.03. BG’s time was just over a second from breaking the 1999 meet record.

“Once we started winning, I think we got the momentum,” said sophomore Meg Richardson. “We kept that going through the entire meet.”

The Falcons continued their dominance over the next four races winning the 300-yard breaststroke relay (3:25.52), the 800-yard freestyle relay (7:57.75), the 400-yard medley relay (3:59.65) and the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:39.68).

The 1500-yard freestyle relay was the lone second place finish for BG losing to Akron 15:38.07 to 15:55.93. Buff said the loss could be contributed to a need for improved strategy in longer races.

“Our strategies were off as far as how to swim a 500 individually,” Buff said. “That is definitely something that we’ll make sure we’re doing in training to correct.”

But BG didn’t lose its confidence after the race finishing the meet strong with two wins in the 400-yard individual medley relay (4:06.45) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:38.16).

Winning nine races was a vast improvement on last year’s performance when the team won just three relays, but the team also finished with a better time than last year in every race but the 800-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard individual medley.

“Nine out of 10 is crazy,” Richardson said. “Last year at this time, we were not close to this in times.”

The biggest drop from last year’s times was in the 400-yard medley relay. BG dropped almost seven seconds from last season’s 4:06.50, and the Falcons also cut nearly three seconds in three other races.

“This was the perfect way to start off our season,” said junior Alisha Yee. “Everyone is swimming faster than ever, and we’re excited to show everyone what we’re about.”

Richardson and Yee were big factors for the Falcons throughout the whole meet as they each were on five winning relays and one or both of them were in eight different races.

“I don’t think we could be disappointed with today,” Yee said.

Freshman Carrie Enright also helped five relays to victory. Chelsea Lopus and Frankie Houck were on four winning relay teams. Sami Jordan was on three winners.

BG now faces a long wait before getting back to competition with its next meet and beginning the Mid-American Conference season scheduled for Nov. 2 at Eastern Michigan.