The Eastern Michigan Women’s Swim and Dive team won its season opener against the University of Toledo, 197–103 Friday night in Toledo, Ohio.
Each member of the Eagles wore pink on their suits and pink ribbon head bands, in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month. The coaches will also make a donation to the Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation in the name of the team.
“We’re swimming and winning for a cause tonight,” senior co-captain Sara Ghaffari said.
The Eagles started the night by winning the 200 medley with the lineup of sophomores Alexis Mitcheltree, Carly Jackson and seniors Monica Dorszewski and Ghaffari setting a time of 1 minute 46.22 seconds. This turned out to be the pace of the night with the Eagles winning 10 of the 16 events.
Junior Clarice Daniel beat out the competition in the 200 individual medley – setting a new personal record with 2:10.24, 1.5 seconds faster than her previous best.
In the 1-meter dive event, senior Lauren Dark scored 256.65 points to take another win for the Eagles. Senior Karley Taylor came in second in the 3-meter dive event with 205.20 points.
The 50, 200 and 500 Freestyle were all won by the Eagles. Junior Mary Kate MacLean started by winning the 50 in 24.30 Junior Becca Detro claimed victory in the 200 in 1:51.79, and finishing up the trifecta was sophomore Grace Van Allen by winning the 500 in 5:04.59.
Making it a sweep of all Freestyle events that night was sophomore Allison Murslack winning the 1000 in 10:30.43, followed by junior Audra Burtch in 10:36.63 and sophomore Abby Aumiller with 10:38.70 – a new career best.
Both butterfly events were taken by the Eagles.
Ghaffari beat out the rest in the 100 Fly in 57.01, while Jackson took another win in the 200 fly in 204.46, just beating out two time MAC champion and EMU senior co-captain Jessie Godlewski, who finished in 2:05.06.
The Rockets won both the 100 and 200 backstroke, but Mitcheltree fought hard for the Eagles by placing second in both events. She finished in 57.74 for the 100 back and 2:04.26 for the 200 back, respectively.
Looking Ahead
The Eagles will host two days of meets at Jones Natatorium. First they will pair off against the University of Akron, Friday and Ohio University on Saturday.
Friday’s meet is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m., while Saturday’s is slated to start at 1 p.m.
