Both the men's and women's swimming teams earned fourth place finished at the Wheaton Invite. Zaria Terry (Madison, Wis./La Follette) won the gold in the 50-yard freestyle event and Gabby Sponseller (Goshen, Ind./Concord) earned a bronze finish in the 200 breaststroke.
Gianna Gnewuch (Madison, Wis./Verona Area) started the night off with a sixth-place finish in the 400-yard IM prelims with a time of 5:01.12. Gnewuch would then go on to improve on her time, touching at 4:56.12, moving up one place to fifth in the finals.
On the men's side of the 400-yard IM, Daniel Keller (Omaha, Neb./Papillion-LaVista) would touch in 4:24.57 to finish fifth in the prelims. In the finals, Keller touched fifth with a time of 4:19.56.
Terry and Naomi Hamerla (Lac Du Flambeau, Wis./Lakeland Union) both qualified in the 100-yard butterfly. Terry finished second with a time of 58.9 and Hamerla at seventh with 1:01.44. Terry made a slight improvement on her time in the finals, finishing second with a time 58.03. Hamerla finished eighth with a time of 1:02.02.
On the men's side of the 100 fly, Ethan Bergman (Racine, Wis./Bradford)n touched with a time 52.10 in the prelims and Ethan Coons (Neenah, Wis./Neenah) right behind him at 52.56. In the finals, Bergmann touched at 52.68 for a sixth-place finish. Coons was eighth at 53.28.
In the 200 breaststroke, Sponseller finished in fourth place with a time of 2:33.00 in the prelims. Sponseller finished 2:29.45 and moved up to third place in the finals.
Daniel Keller (Omaha, Neb./Papillion-LaVista) qualified in his second event, finishing seventh at 2:14.00 in the 200 backstroke. In the finals, Keller slightly improved his time to 2:13.83 and earned a fifth-place finish.
Emily Connell (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower) qualified in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:02.17. Connell finished fifth in the finals with a time of 1:02.45.
Terry was the first to touch in the 50-yard free prelims with a time of 24.39. Terry would go on to earn the first-place finish in the finals, touching in an outstanding time of 24.07.
In the 1650 free, Brianna Zimdars (Whitewater, Wis./Whitewater) finished fifth overall, touching in 20:10.22. On the men's side, Hunter Hayberger (Sandusky, Ohio/Sandusky) finished third with a time of 17:15.44.
Friday Recap
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men's and women's swimming teams each hold fourth in eight-team fields after the first day of competition in the Wheaton Invitational. Warhawk freshman
Zaria Terry (Madison, Wis./La Follette) highlighted day one with a program record in the 100 freestyle.
Terry set a blistering pace in the preliminaries of the 100 free. Her clocking of 51.78 set the program record by nearly two-tenths of a second. Terry went on to take gold in the event with a finals time of 52.20. Teammate
Emily Connell (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower) added a sixth-place finish to round out Warhawks competing in the 'A' finals of the event. In the men's race,
Dom Schlueter (South Elgin, Ill./South Elgin) cut over five-tenths of a second off his time for a 46.27 to finish as the runner-up.
Gabby Sponseller (Goshen, Ind./Concord) led UW-Whitewater in the 200-yard individual medley posting a time of 2:13.35 for fourth place.
Daniel Keller (Omaha, Neb./Papillion-LaVista) added an eighth-place time of 2:02.23 in the men's race to lead the Warhawks. Sponseller added a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke coming into the wall in 1:08.90. On the men's side,
Donny Gramer (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) was sixth with a time of 59.30.
Hunter Hayberger (Sandusky, Ohio/Sandusky) was the runner-up in the 500 free. Cutting over eight seconds off his prelim time, Hayberger was clocked in 4:43.06 in the final.
Ciara Hynes (Eureka, Mo./Eureka) posted another top-eight finish for UWW with a time of 5:43.52 in the event.
Naomi Hamerla (Lac Du Flambeau, Wis./Lakeland Union) and
Gianna Gnewuch (Madison, Wis./Verona Area) finished fourth and sixth in the 'A' final of the 200-yard backstroke to lead the Warhawks. They were clocked in 2:11.10 and 2:12.62 respectively.
Ethan Coons (Neenah, Wis./Neenah) was the top finisher for the UWW men in the event. His 1:58.00 was good for sixth.
In the 200-yard butterfly,
Hannah Gault (Moline, Ill./Senior) was seventh with a time of 2:28.17.
Matt Sipin (Round Lake, Ill./Grayslake Central) and Matt Ozog added a pair of top eight finishes in the event. Sipin's 2:00.40 was fifth while Ozog came into the wall in seventh stopping the clock in 2:02.94.
In the first relay of the meet, the 200-yard freestyle relay, the top women's squad representing UWW finished fourth. Connell was the lead followed by Hennig, Hynes and Terry anchored the foursome to a time of 1:39.88. The top Warhawk men's combination of Bergman, Hayberger, Gramer and Schlueter also took fourth with a time of 1:25.37.
Two additional relays were competed Friday, the 800 freestyle and 400 medley relays. The top-finishing UWW women's combination in the 800 free relay included Gnewuch, Connell, Hamerla and
Amanda Harper (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly) with a time of 8:26.86. The top men's squad took bronze with Hayberger,
Daniel Keller (Omaha, Neb./Papillion-LaVista), Bergman and Schlueter combining for a time of 7:14.01, just 0.11 behind the second-place team. For the 400 medley relay, Gnewuch combined with Sponseller, Hamerla and Terry for a time of 4:05.71 for fifth. The men's squad of Coons, Gramer, Bergman and Schlueter were sixth with a time of 3:33.06.
Women's Team Scores: Wheaton 387, Olivet Nazarene 382, UW-Stevens Point 286, UW-Whitewater 281, Barton Community College 168, Augustana 120, Loras 89, North Central 36
Men's Team Scores: UW-Stevens Point 485, Wheaton 291, Barton Community College 273, UW-Whitewater 262, Olivet Nazarene 205, Augustana 184, Loras 86, North Central 10
