By: Stephen Wagner
INDIANAPOLIS (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – The Green Bay men's and women's swimming and diving teams wrapped up the three-day IUPUI House of Champions Invitational on Sunday, with the women's squad taking second place out of ten teams, while the men's squad claimed third-place overall in the nine-team invite. The meet was highly competitive on both sides and included 53 swims that bested the previous meet records, as well as two diving performances that surpassed the previous records coming off the boards.
The Green Bay women concluded the meet with three first-place finishes, two meet records, 1,478 points and a second-place finish. Host IUPUI took the meet title with a total of 1,662 points, defeating Green bay by a margin of 184 points.
Sophomore Haley Lucas (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) claimed one of the two individual wins for the Phoenix on the women's side this weekend. Lucas won the 200 butterfly after touching the wall in 2:03.45, ahead of teammate Alyssa Udean (2:06.16), breaking her own meet record of 2:03.93.
The second individual win for the Phoenix came off the boards, with freshman Bailey Wagner (West Bend, Wis.) taking the title in the 3-meter competition after turning in a total score of 251.70, edging IUPUI's Bailey Wills by eight points. Wagner also fared well in the 1-meter competition, finishing fourth overall with 247 points.
The final victory on the women's side came in the 800-freestyle relay when the quartet of Racheal Weiland (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.), Anna Gomez (Burlington, Wis.), Stephanie Garvin (West Chicago, Ill.) and Natalie Neuwirth (Stevens Point, Wis.) combined to swim 7:30.10, shattering the meet record by almost six seconds and finishing more than seven seconds ahead of second place.
In addition to aiding the 800-freestyle relay to a win and meet record, freshman Stephanie Garvin garnered some individual success in the 500 free. After touching the wall in 4:56.93, Garvin became the fastest freshman in school history to complete the 500-yard freestyle for the Phoenix.
The men's squad had its fair share of success this weekend, turning in two individual victories, 11 top-five finishes, accumulating 1,341 points and finishing third overall in the nine-team invite. The University of Indianapolis took the team title on the men's side with a total of 1,570.5 points.
Junior Willem Poelmans (Hasselt, Belgium) repeated as the 400 IM champion after out-touching Indy's Nicholas Quigley (4:00.91) with a time of 3:59.84, just shy of the meet record he set last year (3:58.41). Poelmans also turned in a faster time than his own meet record in the 200 IM, but fell to Indy's Brandon Norman and finished in second place with 1:51.12.
Freshman Michael Klemm (Rockford, Ill.) had a successful showing coming off the boards this weekend, claiming the diving championship in the 1-meter competition and finishing third in the 3-meter diving event. Klemm outscored IUPUI's Cody Watts by a six-point margin for the 1-meter title, turning in a total score of 295.95.
The best relay finish on the men's side was provided by the quartet of Evan Hill (Jefferson, Wis.), Ryan Korslin (Rudolph, Wis.), Willem Poelmans and Alec Rutkowski (Dubuque, Iowa), who finished third in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:25.91.
The Phoenix men and women will be off from official competition until Jan. 10, when they travel to UIC for a Horizon League dual meet.
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