On Oct. 28, UW-Eau Claire’s swim and dive team defeated UW-Stevens Point, making them 2-0 overall.

The men’s team defeated UW-Stevens Point with a score of 182-118, while the women’s team swept the competition at 207-93. 

Second-year diver Ella Josephs said that the team had a great time against UW-Stevens Point as they are one of the team’s biggest competitors.

“I like Stevens Point, I like competing against them,” Josephs said. “They are one of our best competitors, they are just super supportive of us. It was a fun meet.”

Second-year sprint and breaststroke swimmer Zhander Rowley said that he was very proud of the team’s performance on Saturday, as tensions with UW-Stevens Point are always high.

“Stevens Point is our biggest competitor,” Rowley said. “When we get to conference, it’s usually us and Point fighting for first.”

Rowley said the team had done an amazing job with their sportsmanship and supporting other swimmers.

“Everyone was just really excited and happy for each other,” Rowley said. “At one point one of our guys, Kyler Simonet, he was going 1v1 against Stevens Point and we had almost the entire team piled up behind him cheering him on.”

Joesphs said one thing that went really well was just the energy, everyone was really supportive.

“Everyone was cheering each other on and trying to keep a positive mindset throughout,” Josephs said. “I think that is one of the most important things. I think the positivity and the energy were the best things going on.”

But Rowley said going forward, the team needs to keep focused and keep looking ahead all the way to conference.

“So just kind of being more meet-ready. It’s super high stakes at that level,” Rowley said. “And thinking more ahead to how this meet could affect the turn out of conference.”

Joesphs said the team needs to continue to work hard and give their all in practice and conditioning. 

“I think a big thing is just taking our conditioning and practices seriously and knowing that they all lead up to meets,” Josephs said. “Because it’s easy to go into practice on a Monday, and want to be lazy, but knowing that our training does pay off.”

Along with the win, Rowley was proud to have beaten his own personal record at the meet and is hoping to keep progressing.

“I set a new personal best, which was faster than my conference time,” Rowley said. “So with good, heavy training for the rest of the season, I’m excited to see how fast my breaststroke can get.”

Both teams’ next meet is at 9 a.m. on Nov. 4 at UW-La Crosse. 

More information on the team’s schedule can be found at Blugold Athletics.

Boggess can be reached at [email protected].