The men’s and women’s swim and dive teams competed against the Bellarmine Knights at 1 p.m. Saturday in the USI Aquatic Center. The venue was packed, which shows how much support this program is garnering — a great sign of things to come going forward.
The meet would be a major challenge, as Bellarmine is an excellent opponent. The Knights consistently place well in regional competitions with state powerhouse programs like Indiana University and Purdue University.
Before the match, the Screaming Eagles huddled up, led by Cameron Kainer, swimming and diving head coach, who expressed the great opportunity this match had in store. He knew the match would be tough, but in order to win tough matchups, you need to be in tough battles. He closed the huddle and let the team leaders start a chant to fire up the team. This is always present, a feeling of oneness in the team.
USI opened the gates with diving, and two performances stood out to me.
First, freshman divers Anna Bunnell and Gabbie Meier were clinical with their dives. They finished atop the leaderboards for both 3-meter and 1-meter dives.
Second, Lane Pollock, junior diver, and Nathan Deputy, sophomore diver, were also excellent for the men’s side, consistently finishing with solid scores across the board.
For swimming, the men’s team struggled to stay within striking distance for most of the meet. However, Cole Baker, sophomore sprint swimmer, returned from an injury setback and finished second place in the 100-meter backstroke, a contest he isn’t overwhelmingly experienced in, showing his flexibility.
Despite Baker’s performance, the men’s team struggled, dropping the overall match by 206-88. Some improvement is certainly needed.
The women’s team performed much better and gave the Knights a run for their money, winning six competitions during the meet.
The team of Elizabeth Ketcham, freshman freestyle/butterfly specialist; Reagan Holmers, sophomore freestyle/individual medley specialist; Caiya Cooper, sophomore freestyle specialist; and Simone Green, freshman sprinter, set a record for the 200-meter freestyle relay with a time of 1:39:21.
In addition to this performance, Ketcham finished first in the 100-meter butterfly with a record-breaking time of 57.71 seconds, and Hayden Shurtz, sophomore breaststroke specialist, finished atop the board in the 100-meter breaststroke. The women’s team had itself a day, falling narrowly by a score of 153-141, an admirable performance.
Despite losing both men’s and women’s competitions, I would not panic after this one. USI played a challenging opponent in the Knights, and quite frankly, I look forward to seeing how they respond to adversity.
One thing that never wavered in this meet was the team’s willingness to support each other, even when circumstances weren’t ideal. This is crucial to building a successful culture in all walks of life.
That’s the mark of true great teams, and USI has a chance to build something special with these teams.