The BG swimming team traveled south and came away even in back-to-back meets against Miami and Xavier this weekend.
This was the team’s first back-to-back swim this season and while they couldn’t hold on against Miami, the Falcons flew over Xavier.
Friday night BG lost the MAC matchup in Oxford, 111-179, giving their season a winless start.
Freshman Victoria Griffin, though, was able to take away individual wins in the 100 and 200 freestyles for the second straight time this year.
Griffin barely touched the wall before fellow Falcon Joelle Scheps came in .68 seconds later, grabbing second place in the 200 freestyle.
Later in the evening, Scheps was able to take first in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 57.06.
Despite first place being just out of reach for many of the events, the Falcons were able to take second a number of times, including the 200 yard breaststroke, 500 yard freestyle and 200 yard freestyle relay.
This was the second MAC meet for the Falcons after being defeated by Eastern Michigan University last week.
Like they would in competition play, the team was up early to take on the Musketeers in a non-conference noon meet in Cincinnati.
Unlike the night before, BG dominated over Xavier winning 10 out of 14 events and ending the meet with a 171-89 win.
“It was good. We were able to mix up, put people into different events that they normally don’t swim,” head coach Petra Martin said.
Griffin went on to win the 100 freestyle, while teammates Tara Capouch, Kristin Filby, Kayla Effinger and Carmen Young also tallied wins in the meet.
Hannah Newman, Daniela Carrillo and Petra Laudova were able to score first place finishes for the Falcons as well.
The relays finished strong in first with Scheps, Carrillo, Effinger and Griffin making up the 200 yard medley relay team and Erica Nieminen, Maya Skorupski, Griffin and Effinger composing the 400 yard freestyle relay team.
The younger athletes on the team have seemed to step up in the meets so far and coach Martin looks forward to seeing more from them in coming weeks.
“I think they’re doing a really good job,” Martin said. “I think they got better even from last week. I know we had only one meet, but they were definitely more aware this weekend and just kind of knew where they needed to be, how to take care of themselves a little bit better during the meets. So, I think they’re progressing very well.”
Besides focusing on winning performances this past weekend, Martin also looked at these meets as valuable experience for the championships later in the season focusing on time management, stamina and speed of the events.
BG sits at 1-2 and will face Oakland University in an away meet Friday evening.
