The Valpo men’s and women’s swimming teams competed in the first of three scheduled home meets on Saturday at the Valparaiso Aquatic Center at Valpo H.S., combining for nine first-place event finishes in a dual meet with Eastern Illinois.

How It Happened

• Two Valpo men posted a pair of individual event victories on Saturday. Freshman Ethan Welker (Clear Spring, Md./Saint James School) touched the wall first in the 200 fly with a time of 1:57.94, 10^th-best in program history in the event. Later in the meet, Welker took top honors with a time of 2:00.56 in the 200 IM.
• Senior Billy Bennett (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) swept the breaststroke events, claiming the 100 breast in 59.11 and the 200 breast in 2:17.04.
• Freshman Alex Koetter (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller) took first place in the 1000 free with a time of 10:21.95, while senior Derek Eidson (Ventura, Calif./Ventura) rounded out Valpo’s event winners on the men’s side with a 53.37 swim in the 100 fly.
• On the women’s side, Valpo claimed three individual wins. Freshman Sara Strauss (Spring Lake, Mich./Spring Lake) took first place in the 100 breast with a time of 1:09.83, just hundredths of a second outside Valpo’s all-time top-10 in the event.
• Fellow rookie Bridget Pollard (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield South) trounced the field in the 200 fly with a time of 2:16.80, while junior Sophie Morelock (Milan, Mich./Milan) won the 200 back, touching the wall in 2:16.21.
• Among a myriad of second-place finishes by the Valpo women were two from Pollard to go with her 200 fly win. Pollard came home second in both the 100 fly (1:01.07) and the 200 IM (2:21.00).
• Other second-place showings on the women’s side included freshman Haley Hume (Ballwin, Mo./Marquette) in the 200 free (2:02.25), sophomore Kenzie Conn (Celina, Ohio/Celina) in the 100 back (1:03.85), freshman Morgan Allison (West Chester, Ohio/Lakota West) in the 200 fly (2:25.31), senior Chiara Robinson (Castle Pines, Colo./Rock Canyon) in the 50 free (25.49) and freshman Dot Chislett (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area) in the 200 breast (2:36.42).
• On the men’s side, senior Dominic May (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) narrowly missed an event win in the 200 free, touching the wall in 1:44.18, just a quarter-second out of the top spot. Eidson picked up a second-place finish in the 100 back (55.47) to go with his 100 fly win.
• Eastern Illinois claimed team victories by scores of 167-95 (women) and 155-107 (men).

Next Up

The Valpo women return to action with a dual meet at UNI next Friday, Oct. 29 at 4 p.m. The men compete next in a tri-meet at the Valparaiso Aquatic Center next Saturday, Oct. 30 versus Green Bay and Youngstown State at 2 p.m.