Feb. 25, 2004

Results

CHICAGO, Ill. - Day one of the Horizon League Swimming and Diving Championships concluded Wednesday night and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's swimming team find themselves in third (97 pts.) while the Panther men are sitting in fourth (88 pts.). Current team standings aside, the first day consisted of three new school records for the Panthers.

The Panther women, responsible for two of the latest school records, got the record-breaking performances going in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The combination of Julie Olson, Bridget Fargen, Heather Sawatzki and Sarah Caldwell placed third in the event and broke the old school record of 1:38.74, set earlier this year, by recording a time of 1:37.61. Olson, Sawatzki and Caldwell teamed up with Lindsay Caldwell in the 200-yard medley relay to finish third with a time of 1:47.95. The time set by the four Panther women broke the school's record time of 1:49.10 set in 2002. Other top performers for the women were Sarah Valley, Susan Harmsen and Cathy Honeyager. Valley (10:41.22), Harmsen (10:45.25) and Honeyager (10:45.33) placed sixth, ninth and 10th in the 1000-yard freestyle.

The Panther men scored a school record in the 1000-yard freestyle thanks to Michael Belting. Belting swam to a third-place finish and a time of 9:30.77, breaking the old school record time of 9:34.51 held by Brent Boock since 1991. The men also scored fourth-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:23.43) and 200-yard medley relay (1:33.34).

In the earlier preliminary session, the Panther divers made sure they would be well represented in the finals. On the 3-meter board, Jeff Jasinowski (401.25), Joel Mauer (383.15) and Corey Kupfer (380.85) qualified for the diving finals by placing fourth, sixth and eighth. The women divers made sure they would represent half of the finalists in the 1-meter diving session with their individual performances. The top eight divers qualify for the finals and UWM will account for four of those spots. Hannah Burgard (237.80), Crystal Szymanski (219.00), Becky Rubel (207.15) and Erin Blemberg (196.15) placed second, fourth, fifth, and eighth to qualify.

"Today was a good day for us," Panther head coach Dave Clark said. "Three school records is hard to complain about and there's a lot of competition still left."

Day two of the league championships will resume Thursday at 10:30 a.m. with the women's 500-yard freestyle event.