After a successful season and an away win at Evansville, Men’s Swimming and Diving looks forward to their last meet before the Atlantic10 Championships. This Saturday, Feb. 5, the team will travel to Charleston, Illinois, to face Eastern Illinois University in the last meet before heading to Buffalo, New York, on Feb. 23 to swim for the A-10 Championships at St. Bonaventure University.
The team heads to Eastern Illinois with an 11-1 dual meet record, one of the best in SLU history.
“Being 12-1 is one of the main driving forces for why we want to swim fast. People look down on us, and we really want to show them up at this meet,” sophomore Marco Navarro said. Once SLU faces Eastern Illinois this Saturday, the swimmers will begin to taper in hopes of cutting additional time. Last year, SLU fell to Eastern Illinois 135-70 after coming off a series of wins.
At last year’s A-10 Championship meet, Massachusetts took first with a total of 814.5 with SLU finishing 7 of 8 with a total of 198.
“Last year we just wanted to beat one team, and we achieved that goal. Our main goal this year is to beat two teams in the conference, and we have the ability and the drive to do it. It just has to be recognized with a win this weekend,” Navarro said.
The team enters the last weeks of the season after a successful drowning of Evansville 141-101. Among the many highlights, Patrick Merlihan, Spencer Litzau and Mike Kelly swept the 1000-Free, taking first, second and third. Jimmy Brabbins, Brian Brasser, Will Butzke and B.J. Sayre took the 200-Medley, while Michael Dahle and Mike Kelly took first and second in the 200-IM.
Stephen Sheridan took first in the 100-Free, and Kelly took the 500-Free with Litzau following less than a second later and Merlihan placing third, finishing up the second sweep of the day. Brasser also took first in the 100-Breastroke, and the team ended the day with a win in the 200-Free Relay.
Although a freshman, Merlihan will be a key in the distance events during the championship meet.
“His fasted times overall in distance are faster than the school records. He hasn’t gone those times yet here, but once he tapers for conference, I’m excited to see how fast he really is,” Anne Marie Christensen, a member of the women’s swimming and diving team said.
Dahle, a senior on the team, will also play a critical role during the championship meet. Having already earned the honor of A-10 Performer of the Week on Jan. 18, Dahle will lead the team into familiar territory. Last year after his performance at the championship meet and his impressive season, Dahle earned a selection on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District First Team.
In addition to Dahle, junior diver Chad Carmichael also earned the honor of A-10 Co-Performer of the Week this season after sweeping the one- and three-meter diving events at a meet in early October. His performance will earn the team critical points at the championship meet.
“We’re more willing to stride this year, and we know what it takes to get our goals accomplished. We’ve set goals as a team and achieved them and plan on continuing that at the championships,” Navarro said.
