Swimming and Diving Teams Both Finish First at Centre College Midwest Classic
RESULTS | TEAM SCORES
Louisville, Ky., October 30, 2010 — The Washington University in St. Louis men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams returned to action after a three-week hiatus to pick up a pair of first-place finishes at the Centre College Midwest Classic on Saturday, Oct. 30, in Louisville, Ky.
The Washington University men’s team tallied a team score of 720 points at the four-team meet, while the Washington U. women’s squad finished with 734 points, edging second place Washington and Lee University by 18 points. The WUSTL men finished first in nine races on Saturday, with the women’s team grabbing the top spot in 10 events.
A trio of freshmen paced the Washington U. women at the Midwest Classic, as Grace Murray, Chi Pham and Paige VanTassell each placed first in a pair of individual events.
Murray won the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:42.60) and the 200-yard butterfly (2:13.64), Pham finished first in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.05) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:10.81) and VanTassell won the 200-yard freestyle (1:58.73) and the 500-yard freestyle (1:58.73).
Additionally, Pham and VanTassell joined freshman Allison Siegel and junior Amy Vanlishout to post a first-place time of 3:41.74 in the 400-freestyle relay at the conclusion of the meet.
Siegel added a first-place individual finish to her relay victory, winning the 50-yard freestyle (25.03), and senior Karin Underwood also placed first in a relay and individual swim. She won the 200-yard backstroke (2:12.96) and teamed with senior Claire Henderson, freshman Connie Shao and junior Karina Stridh to win the 200-medley relay (1:52.94).
Seniors stepped up on the men’s side, with David Chao and Michael Flanagan pacing the Bears to victory. Chao won the 200-freestyle (1:44.98) and the 100-yard freestyle (47.62) in addition to swimming the final leg for the first-place 400-freestyle relay team (3:10.91), where he swam with freshman Jason Wan, senior Kartik Anjur and sophomore Mark Minowitz.
Flanagan swept the top spot in both butterfly events, winning the 100-fly with a time of 52.77 and the 200-fly in 1:56.84. Anjur added a first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, posting a time of 53.24.
Also picking up wins for the Bears was freshman Alex Cox in the 1,000-freestyle (10:08.56), junior Chris Valach in the 500-yard freestyle (4:52.95) and freshman Tyler Perez in the 200-yard IM (2:01.50).
The Washington U. men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will return to action next Saturday, Nov. 6, when they host the University of Chicago in a dual meet at the Millstone Pool in St. Louis, Mo., beginning at 1 p.m.