The BG swim team swam with confidence at the Eastern Michigan Invitational on Friday and Saturday.
The Falcons posted several top-three finishes and earned a respectable fourth place overall finish.
They earned 604 points, which was only 45 points away from Ball State, who finished third. Michigan ran away with the invitational by scoring 865 points.
The Invitational lasted two days and hosted 18 events.
Saturday morning, BG entered two swimmers and they ended up in second and third place, with both of them eclipsing the previous meet record in the 100 breaststroke.
Sophomore Alexis Kain earned the second spot and set a new personal record, finishing in 1:03.86.
Junior Amanda Rom, who is the school record holder in the event (1:03.03), placed third with a time of 1:03.95. The previous meet record was 1:03.97.
In the 100 backstroke, another personal record fell when sophomore Alexa Harris finished in 0:57.61, breaking her old record by over one-half second.
Three of the six Falcon swimmers in the 100 butterfly finished in the top-10, with two placing in the top-three, scoring a much needed 40 points. Vicky Yu once again swam solidly and earned a second place finish in the event. Senior Sarah Burston finished behind Yu in third and Carrie Enright placed 10th.
Kristina Roop finished seventh and Katie Womack finished ninth in the 400 individual medley, earning BG two more top 10 finishes.
The morning section of the invitational included two relays. In the morning session, the Falcons had 14 top-10 finishes; no team totaled more than 15. The night session posted another 13 top-10 finishes for a total of 27 during the second day of the meet. Only Michigan’s 29 exceeded BG’s total.
In the 200 free and the 400 medley relays, the Falcons had two teams in both events. In the 200 free, the teams finished third and 10th. The 400 medley relay included a fourth place finish, which was just off the pool record and the second team placed eighth, respectively.
In the 50 freestyle, Brittany Szekely placed fourth with a time of 0:23.89, which posted one of BG’s top-10 of all-time personal bests. Sarah Reinink finished after Szekely in fifth.
Coach Petra Martin was excited going into the Invitational and was happy with how her team raced.
“This was a good meet for us,” Martin said. “It was a good indication of how they have responded to the training and I take this as a step forward.”
BG will now have more than a month before the next dual meet which will feature the Falcons against Eastern Michigan at Cooper Pool beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Jan. 14.
“After exams we will start our training camp, going for more intensity, yardage and more power in preparing for our next meet,” Martin said.
