The Valparaiso men’s and women’s swimming teams celebrated their senior class with their Senior Day meet Saturday afternoon  at the ARC, splitting the meet with Eastern Illinois. The Crusader men earned a 136-126 victory, while the EIU women prevailed 160-87.

The seven-member senior class was honored as part of their final home meet at the ARC on Saturday. The Crusader seniors closing their four-year careers this spring include Gonzalo Castro Diaz (Mexico City, Mexico/Instituto Oxford), Alec Domjan (Jackson, Mo./Notre Dame Regional), Fred Jenny (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany), Erin McBride (St. Louis, Mo./Webster Groves), Tim Mitchell (Lakeville, Minn./North), Anne Rowley (Forsyth, Ill./Maroa-Forsyth) and Atolo Tuinukuafe (Ann Arbor, Mich./North).

A pair of the Crusader seniors won two events apiece on Saturday. Castro Diaz capped his home career with wins in the 200 free (1:45.03) and the 100 fly (52.60), leading a 1-2-3 Valpo finish in the latter event. Meanwhile, Jenny touched the wall first in both the 100 breaststroke (59.02) and the 100 free (48.03). The duo also swam the middle two legs of Valpo’s first-place 200 medley relay squad.

The other Valpo seniors all swam at least one individual event on Saturday as well. McBride posted a second-place finish in the 50 free, while Rowley placed fourth in the 100 backstroke. Mitchell (100 fly, 100 backstroke) and Tuinukuafe (100 breaststroke, 200 breaststroke) each posted a pair of third-place showings, while Domjan swam to a fifth-place finish in the 200 free.

Castro Diaz and Jenny combined for four of the Valpo men’s six individual wins as the Crusaders claimed their first dual meet win of the year. Also earning top finishes were junior Arman Salim (Angola, Ind./Fremont), who registered a time of 2:00.53 in the 200 fly to top the field, and freshman Dylan Kirar (Arvada, Colo./Ralston Valley), who came home first in the 1000 free with a time of 10:16.00.

On the women’s side, three Crusaders combined for four event wins on Saturday. Junior Rachel Law (Wayne, Pa./Villa Maria Academy) finished with a pair of first-place showings, touching the wall first in both the 200 fly (2:16.99) and the 500 free (5:24.97). Sophomore Paiton Krebs (Sarasota, Fla./Cardinal Mooney) won the 1000 free with a time of 11:11.87, and junior Emily Trimpe (New Palestine, Ind./New Palestine) took top honors in the 200 breaststroke (2:33.07).

Valparaiso heads to its final dual meet of the season next Saturday, January 30, as the Crusaders travel downstate to Evansville.