By Emily Harman
The University of Puget Sound’s swim teams kicked off their first home meet with a win against Lewis and Clark College on Friday, Nov. 4. The swim teams continued their success with a win against Pacific University on Saturday, Nov. 5.
The Logger men’s team beat Lewis and Clark College by a score of 126 to 78, while the women’s team scored 117.50 to 87.50. Against Pacific University (Oregon), the women’s team posted a score of 118-87 and the Men’s team led 120-80.
Heading into the meets against Lewis and Clark College and Pacific University, the swim team’s attitude was optimistic. first-year student Katrina Hoefflinger (Los Altos, California) said that the respective swim captains believe “we have a good chance to place in the conference. We have a strong group of freshman this year.”
Hoefflinger herself said that “the team seems to be pushing themselves at practice and doing their best.” Their efforts seem to be paying off, too.
The first win of Friday night was sophomore Carmen Mena (Colorado Springs, Colorado) swimming a time of 11:23.03 in the women’s 1000-yard freestyle. Mena also placed second in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:33.64.
Other swimmers with wins on Friday were first-year student Calista Skog (Kenmore, Washington) in the women’s 200 individual medley (2:18.48) and junior Mitch Kilgore (Conifer, Colorado) in both the men’s 50 freestyle (22.23) and the men’s 100 freestyle (10:07:11).
On Saturday, Mena claimed the 500 (5:36.93) and 1000 (11:32.13) yard freestyle competitions again. Skog won the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 25.47. Junior Nick Mitchell (Tuscon, Arizona) placed first in the men’s 200 freestyle, timing in at 1:47.81.
Skog said, “I feel good about the way I swam, although there is still plenty of room for improvement” in regards to her swimming so far this season.
Skog also echoed what Hoefflinger said, agreeing that “the team overall seems to be doing really well, and a lot of swimmers seem to be well on their way to accomplishing their goals! Everyone is working really hard during practice and I’m excited to see how fast everyone swims later in the season!”
Leading up to these meets, the Logger swim teams had participated in the Northwest Conference Relays and Sprints. The teams did well in both meets, setting themselves up for their improvements against Lewis and Clark and Pacific.
The team is looking to keep their optimism for the next few meets. As first-year student Sylas Cole (Louisville, Kentucky) said, “it’s still pretty early in the season, but we are looking very promising.”
The Loggers will be traveling to Linfield for their next meet on Friday, Nov. 11.