The Saint Louis University men’s and women’s swim team arrived
at the St. Peter’s Rec. Plex on Saturday, saw the opposition and
conquered it. Winning on Saturday in a double-dual meet the
Billiken men moved to 4-1 while the women remained undefeated at
5-0.
“I was expecting a good young team. We have 26 freshman out of
52 on the team and a lot of new and enthusiastic people who have
raised the level of practice,” said coach Jim Halliburton.
The Billiken men dominated on Saturday defeating Lindenwood,
71-37 and Rose Hulman 98-15. The Billiken team swept all three
relay races but also saw stunning performances from its individual
competitors. John Stoneburner opened the meet winning two of the
three first individual events with a time of 9:59.20 in the
1000-meter free-style and 1:59.03 in the 200-meter Individual
Medley. The Billikens continued to conquer as sophomore Christopher
Johansen picked up wins in the 200-meter freestyle and 500-meter
freestyle, freshman Josh Stephens claimed the 100-meter backstroke,
senior Rich Sheridan won the 100-meter butterfly and junior Bobby
Wolf swept the diving events.
“I think that we can break several school records and improve
individually, but I expect us to finish at about .500,” Halliburton
said. “We are struggling with a lack of sprinters and lack of
depth. It will be hard to match last year’s 12-4 record.”
The Billiken men’s team suffered their only loss on Oct. 17,
127-116, to Western Illinois.
“They have actually done really well in the four meets that we
won and my guess is that they would have won [against Western
Illinois] if they would have swam as well as they did the previous
meet. It was a close meet, but I was a little disappointed,”
Halliburton said.
The Billikens will face the University of Evansville in
Evansville, Ind. on Nov. 1.
“It should be a real close meet on the men’s side. They have
some really top backstrokers and sprinters and the middle races
will make the difference and then our divers our stronger than
theirs. It should be a toss-up,” said Halliburton.
The Billiken women also had huge success this Saturday defeating
Lindenwood 88-27 and Rose Hulman 100-11 and coming out with three
double winners in the meet. Freshman Jana Jones came up with
victories in the 100-meter butterfly and the 500-meter freestyle,
freshman Meredith Grass won both the 200-meter freestyle and 100
meter backstroke, and junior Megan Capellupo claimed first place in
the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter freestyle sprints. Like the
men, the women also took wins in all the relay races and several
other individual races. Emily Oberjohn took first in the
1,000-meter freestyle , Kelly Tessar won the 100-meter
breaststroke, and senior Tessa Truesdell was victorious on the
three-meter board.
“The girls swam great. Since the other teams weren’t that
competitive, we just went in and had fun while we were there and
that resulted in some pretty fast times,” Tessar said.
“I knew that the women would be really strong. The women went
from 0-9 two years ago to 14-4 last year and we are almost as
improved this year from last as we were from two years ago to last.
We have really good depth in almost every event. They are really
good. I am really pleased at where we are,” Halliburton said.
“I’m very pleased with how well we’ve been doing, but I’m not
surprised. We have been working really hard in the pool and we have
a lot of great freshman swimmers who are competitors, willing to
put the time in to get better,” Tessar said. Freshman Meredith
Grass broke school records in the 1,000-meter freestyle by 13
seconds at Washington University and broke the mile time also by 13
seconds at Butler.
“The freshmen are used to working hard and practicing a lot and
the whole team has a much better work ethic and practice attendance
because of it,” Halliburton said.
The Billiken women’s team will take on Evansville along with the
men on Nov. 1.
