Swim and dive team makes a splash with weekend sweep


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The women’s swim and dive team earned itself a double victory this weekend, finishing first at the 2010 Southern Methodist University Invitational in Dallas, while also defeating the University of Idaho Vandals at home in a dual meet.

At the SMU Invite, where the team competed against SMU, Purdue, Louisville and Rice, the Women of Troy earned themselves a winning 420 points, with runner-up SMU earning 314. The team proved itself as a force to be reckoned with after winning 15 out of 16 events total.

“We went into the meet with a lot of confidence,” senior Presley Bard said. “We didn’t necessarily have much competition so that showed we have the ability to step it up and race the clock even though we didn’t have anyone pushing us.”

During the first day of competition on Friday, in a meet where eight swimmers and one diver compete, with one swimmer per heat, the Women of Troy swept all eight events they participated in. Led by Bard’s two wins, the team walked into day two of the invite ready to continue swimming just as hard.

“We’ve been training really hard and we were really excited. Whenever you travel to a meet, you automatically have a feeling of team spirit and pride because you’re repping your school,” Bard said. “Our coach asked what our goal was and we said [we] wanted to post some of the fastest times in the country.”

By the end of their second and final day of the SMU Invite on Saturday, the Women of Troy successfully held onto their lead and secured their first place victory, winning seven of its eight events on Saturday.

“People are gonna be looking out at USC after this meet,” Bard said.

Back home at McDonald’s Swim Stadium, the members of the women’s swim and dive team that did not travel to Dallas for the SMU Invite participated in a dual meet against the Idaho Vandals. The Women of Troy won the meet 112-81, with junior Amanda Smith finishing first in two events, the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle.

“In the [Idaho] meet we were hoping to prove that we have depth even though we didn’t have our top eight girls there. We were really impressed by how they did at home and that really got us pumped up [in Dallas],” senior Lyndsay DePaul said.

After this weekend’s victories, the team’s divers will now prepare to host the USC Diving Invitational next weekend. The next dual tournaments for the team will take place on Nov. 12 against Arizona and Nov. 13 against Arizona State. Both meets will take place at McDonald’s Swim Stadium.