By Charlie Lynch
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams clashed with Austin College and McMurry University for a double meet in the small town of Sherman, Texas over block break.
The Tigers dominated Austin and McMurry in both swimming and diving, ultimately defeating the two teams. The Tigers swim team excelled from the beginning, opening up the meet by winning the 400 medley in the men’s and women’s categories to set the stage for the rest of the com- petition. The final score for the men’s team was an astounding 213-78 over Austin and 233-46 over McMurry.
Both Cade Thumann ’22 and Cole Thu- mann ’22 performed extremely well, com- ing in first in several events. The women’s team was similarly solid and steady, out- performing Austin 213-67 and McMurry 235-34 in a stunning performance. Some great individual performances from Jio Chang ’20 and Kate Brush ’23 pushed the women’s team to the win.
Topher Shepherd ’23 helped win the men’s 400 freestyle relay.
“We beat both of the teams, but we had a big advantage coming down to sea level in Sherman,” Shepherd said. “It almost felt like it was the end of the season because of the altitude. “We all swam fast and really well, which made us really excited about how the meet ended up. We just got a lot closer as a team over the course of the meet.”
The experience of the competition left Shepherd excited for the rest of the sea- son.
“That meet just showed us that we have the potential to be pretty good this year,” said Sheperd. “A lot of strong swimmers and a lot of depth.”
The diving team also brought heat to the meet with great individual efforts, pushing the Tigers to pull in a big win ahead of the upcoming conference meet in Chicago. Peyton Classon ’23 captured first and got NCAA qualifying scores along with Ri- ley Wadehra ’20 and Jennifer Middleton ’21.
Keelan Woodward ’22, a member of the men’s dive team, was excited by the out- come of the meet.
“I think we had a great team win and with that a lot of individual success was seen,” Woodward said. “[It’s] always fun to go away [on] meet trips for team bonding and getting to know the younger people on the team. Overall I think it was a great meet in terms of individual and team suc- cess.”
A great team effort from the women’s and men’s team was essential for building positive momentum before the Tigers swim and dive teams head to Chicago for the Phoenix Fall Classic at the end of November.