The UW-Eau Claire swimming and diving team competed this weekend at the JoAnn Andregg Invite hosted by the University of St. Thomas. The men ended competition with a third place finish while the women placed fifth.

On the men’s side, Collin Miller had a big day for the Blugolds as the sophomore achieved top-three finishes in three events. Miller touched second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.07 and secured third in both the 100-yard breaststroke (59.83) and 50-yard freestyle (21.33).

Dayton Miller, a senior, finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:14.23) and fourth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:02.13) while Logan Coert, senior, placed fifth in the 100-yard free. Nicholas Meints, sophomore, took third in the 400-yard IM at 4:16.50 and Andrew Strauch, a junior, secured fourth in the 200-yard butterfly (2:04.93).

The Miller brothers, Caleb Odmark and Andrew Shane made up the 400-yard freestyle relay team that took third with a time of 3:15.94. They also put together a fourth place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:28.22.

The 400-yard medley relay team of Collin Miller, Dayton Miller, Strauch and Coert finished fifth with a time of 3:39.17, rounding out the men’s weekend.

In a meet where the Blugolds competed against Division II St. Cloud and top-25 ranked St. Thomas, Odmark said he was proud of the team for how they performed this weekend and even said they were congratulated by coaches after the meet.

“This meet came after the hardest week of practice all season yet,” Odmark said. “Everybody was sore, tight and really run-down and somehow we managed to pull out a lot of season bests.”

On the women’s side, the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Emily Ries, a first-year competitor, Molly Quinlan, a senior, Olivia Hanzak, a first-year competitor, and Jessica Short, a junior, took sixth place in a time of 3:47.82.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Short, Quinlan, Jessica Wilson, a first-year competitor, and Brittany Farr, a junior,  placed seventh in 1:43.06 while the 800-yard freestyle relay team of Hanzak, Rachael Streit, a first-year competitor, Kate Stensberg, a first-year competitor, and Sari Mailey, a senior, finished eighth with a time of 8:26.79.

Camille Madsen, a junior, achieved eighth in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:10.34.

At the halfway point in the season, Short said she believes the team is ahead of schedule in some aspects.

“In comparison to previous years, a lot of people are ahead of where they expected to be,” Short said. “People swam crazy fast this weekend, faster than we ever expected to, so people are definitely getting excited.”

With a few weeks of rest coming up for the team, the Blugolds’ next competition will be Dec. 1-3 at the Rochester Invitational.