The Eastern Michigan University women’s swim and dive team lost to the University of Toledo on Saturday, 170-130.
Eastern Michigan (3-3, 2-1 Mid-American Conference) halted its three-meet winning streak with the loss and ended the conference-winning streak at seven. The victory for Toledo (4-1, 3-0 MAC) puts them in a tie for first place in the conference standings with Miami University.
EMU junior Monica Dorszewski took a pair of wins in the 100- and 200-yard breastrstroke events. Junior Jessie Godlewski won in the 200-yard butterfly and placed second in the 200-individual medley. Dorszewski and freshman Genna Worthley made it an Eagles 1-2 finish in the 200-breast when Dorszewski punched the wall at 2 minutes 20 seconds and beat Worthley by 2.46 seconds.
Freshman Grace Van Allen finished second twice in the 200-yard freestyle and 500-freestyle and got another runner up finish in the 400-yard free relay for the Eagles. Van Allen lost to Toledo freshman Jamie Skowronek in the 200-free by a mere .07 seconds. EMU head coach Peter Linn said it was difficult for some swimmers to compete beause of several illnesses.
Another bright spot of the day was EMU sweeping both diving events.
Redshirt junior Melynee Saya earned her first diving win of the season with 269.70 score while Eagles junior Karly Taylor took second with a 251.62 tally while Rockets junior diver Allison Belcher claimed third place.
It was a tight three-meter dive that ended with redshirt senior Danielle Hulvey claiming her fifth victory of the 2013-14 campaign. Hulvey scored a 267.22 to defeat Toledo senior Kristy Richart (266.47) while Saya (247.30) rounded out the podium in third.
But it was Toledo that won 11 of the 16 events, including both relay events. Senior Beth Rogers won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly events as well as anchoring the Rocket relay teams to victories in the 200-medley and 400-free relays.
Toledo junior Maria Bargardi and senior Christina Noens finished 1-2 in both backstroke events. It was a close finish between the two Rocket swimmers in the 100-back as Bargardi defeated Noens by .46 seconds. The pair was also part of a Toledo 1-2-3-4 finish in the 200-back with senior Rachel Johnson and sophomore Lauren Comer finishing third and fourth respectively. Noens was also on the 200-medley relay winning team.
Freshman Stephanie O’Toole was a part of both winning relay teams, won the 100-yard freestyle, and claimed second in the 100-yard backstroke.
Rockets sophomore Kristen Nunnelly grabbed a pair of individual wins in the 500-freestyle and 200-yard individual medley as well as claiming second in the 200-yard butterfly. Nunnelly beat Godlewski in the 200-IM by a scant .34 seconds.
Looking Ahead:
Toledo is taking a break from competition to prepare for the Zippy Invitational against the host University of Akron Dec. 6-8.
The Eagles are also taking a respite in its schedule to prepare for the EMU Invitational on Dec. 6 and 7. Wayne State University and Oakland University are some of the teams scheduled to appear in the invitational.
The Eagle swimmers are hopeful of getting some rest and remaining healthy for the invitational.
“I think we’re going to train really hard,” EMU sophomore Becca Detro said. “We’ll rest a couple of days and we’ll do really well and drop a lot of time and do a lot better than the rest of the meets.”
