Less than two minutes into the Washington University Invitational last weekend, the Saint Louis University women’s swimming & diving team had established a lead. They would never give it up the rest of the day.

The Billikens took the opening event by registering a 1:52.06 in the 200-yard medley relay.

They followed that with an individual win, as senior Taylor Streid trounced the competition in the individual 200-yard medley. Streid finished at 2:10.67, a full five seconds faster than the competition.

It was the first of three individual wins for the senior that day.

Streid later registered a 1:00.46 in the 100-yard backstroke, and then touched at 59.30 in the 100-yard butterfly to earn her third individual victory. She was the only swimmer to finish the 100-yard butterfly in under a minute.

Sophomore Lizzy Osterman continued her year-long success with two individual victories on the day. She took the individual 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:12.07 early in the meet, then followed it up with a 1:58.09 mark in the 200-yard freestyle. Osterman has been strong all season for the Billikens, in both individual events and in relays.

The relay teams were particularly successful, sweeping all four relay events on the day. After opening the event with the 200-yard medley relay victory, the Billikens went on to win all of the remaining three relays: the 800-yard freestyle, the 400-yard medley and the 400-yard freestyle. By the end of the meet, the women were firmly in control, locking down a dominant performance at the Wash U Invitational.

They got help from the divers as well. The duo of Courtney Lagestee and Christiana Eltiste finished in first and second, respectively, on the one-meter board. Lagastee’s score was the highest of the season for SLU.

The women defeated two local universities, Washington University and Lindenwood University.

The men’s side placed 5th out of 7. The men’s side has had an up and down season as a team, but have had storng individual performances.

Senior Brian Brasser won the 100-yard backstroke by registering a time of 58.16, while freshman Zack Billingsley flew through the 50-yard freestyle in just 21.46.

The men also won one relay event, opening the invitational with a 1:35.69 mark in the 200-yard medley relay.

On the boards, Billly Hrabovsky scored a season-high 472.10 off the three-meter. The men’s team finished in fifth place out of the eight schools competing.

Stephen Hansen also performed well for the Bills finishing in third place in the Men’s 200-yard breaststroke.   The women’s first-place finish was the first time this season that SLU had won an invitational outright.

The women placed third at the IUPUI House of Champions Invitational in November, and the men placed second in that same event.

The men and women will return to Indianapolis, Ind., for the IUPUI Quad this weekend, taking on Xavier, Western Illinois and IUPUI on Friday. On Saturday morning, they return to St. Louis for the Lindenwood Invitational.

The teams continue to prepare for the all-important Atlantic 10 Championship, to be held in Buffalo, N.Y., Feb. 22-25.