BOWLING GREEN, Ky.-With conference championships approximately a month away, the Western Kentucky University swimming team prepared over the weekend with an intrasquad meet where the Red team took a 127-118 win over the White team.
White started the meet on a strong note with two first-place finishes with freshman Michelle Craddock and senior Billy Kunkel in their respective 200 free event. The Red team opened it up, though, in the third event, as senior Alex Van Oost took the top time in the 100 back to spark nine-straight first-place times for Red. In the streak, Red winners included a top-three sweep in the 100 breast with sophomore Claire Conlon, junior Victoria Frascino and sophomore Rebecca Hatcher. Junior Heitor Rodrigues was also a double winner in the span with wins in the 200 fly and 50 free.
Craddock's second win of the day in the 100 free halted Red's win streak while sophomore Seth Musser also put points in White's favor with a win in the 200 back. However, Red put up five-straight top times after that, including Conlon and sophomore Susan Marquess each posting their second win in the 200 breast and 500 free, respectively.
White didn't go down without a fight, as the team started to rally with four-consecutive wins to close the meet that featured sophomore Tyler Groneck with his second individual win in the 100 fly, a sweep of the 200 IM with Seth Musser, Kunkel and freshman Chris Goodman, and a 1-2 finish in the 400 IM with sophomore Loui Little and junior Sam Dalton, respectively.
The Hilltoppers compete in the Conference USA Championships beginning February 20 and ending February 23 in Houston, Texas. The Lady Toppers follow the week after with the Sun Belt Conference Championships starting on February 27 and lasting until March 2 in Dallas, Texas. WKU finished second in both of the SBC Championships last season. This is the first season that the men's team will compete with Conference USA while the women's second-place finish is the highest of returning Sun Belt teams.
