The men’s and women’s swimming and diving team took home 18 top-eight finishes after competing Saturday and Sunday at the Rochester Invitational, hosted by St. Cloud State University.

The men’s team grabbed 10 top-eight finishes, five coming from relay teams.

Junior Jake McDade of Monona, Wis., took fourth-place in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:48.24, the best finish for the Blugolds. McDade said he scored his best mid-season times at the Rochester Invitational.

“I was very excited to see my times, but I thought everyone did really well,” McDade said.  “We had a couple days of rest before the meet, we took off mornings, so I think that helped us a lot.”

McDade said he was impressed by the amount of support the swimming team showed during the meet.

“Our team was cheering well, which was awesome,” he said. “The miles are always swum at the end of the meet so everyone usually leaves before the mile swimmers get to swim, but our entire team stayed and every single person was on the side of the pool cheering.  We were the only team who had more than like 5 people stay so that was really cool to see.”

Other notable finishes include senior Alex Card’s fifth place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:09.19, and sophomore Nick Stern’s sixth place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 17:14.79.

The relay team of seniors Ben Epperly, Aaron Lickel, Spencer Rose and Card took fifth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:28.05.

The women’s team grabbed six top-eight finishes with the divers leading the way.

Divers Amanda Baker and Sara Axness came in third place in the three and one-meter dives, respectively.   Baker, a sophomore, scored 386.25 points and Axness, a sophomore, scored 392.45 points.

Other notable finishes include junior Lisa Reed’s sixth place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 18:07.24, and sophomore Allison Hable’s seventh place finish with a time of 24.94 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle.

Both the men’s and women’s team will have a brief break until Jan. 4 when they face Willamette & Whitworth in a relay at Coronado Island, Calif. Their regular season will pick back up Jan. 17 at the UW-Stevens Point Invite.