Indianapolis, IN, November 1, 2014 – The men and women of Western Kentucky University (WKU) traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana to take on the IUPUI Jaguars this past weekend. The WKU men also took on a small squad of Indiana University (IU) men, though the brunt of the Hoosier squad was in Tennessee, where it won a triangular with the Volunteers and Kentucky Wildcats. The WKU Hilltopper men brought home wins against both teams, as they surpassed IUPUI 197-100 and IU 180.5-99.5. The Hilltopper women also logged a win, as they beat IUPUI 165-123.
Women’s Meet
On the Lady Hilltopper side, WKU dominated in most every event, starting with the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Nadine Laemmler, Claire Conlon, Hannah Musser, and Logan Graumann were the clear winners in a time of 1:43.53. This commanding win was later followed by two WKU sweeps, first in the 200 freestyle with a 1-2-3 finish by junior Michelle Craddock (1:52.35), freshman Sidney King (1:54.12), and sophomore Toledo transfer Kristen Nunnely (1:54.79). The 100 backstroke sweep entailed Nadine Laemmler finishing in 55.65, followed by teammates Allie Duff in 56.04 and Andrea Vandermey in 56.72.
The first individual win for the IUPUI Lady Jaguars came from sophomore Alexis Bullard who clocked a 54.79 for first place. After consecutive wins by WKU women in the 200 backstroke (Laemmler, 2:00.43), 200 breaststroke (Conlon, 2:20.92), 500 freestyle (Craddock, 4:58.35), and 100 butterfly (Musser, 55.07), IUPUI did come away with a fingernail-sized win in the 200 IM. Senior Jenny Oleksiak of the Lady Jaguars out-touched Kennedy Higdon of WKU, finishing 2:09.48 to 2:09.51 for the closest race of the entire competition. WKU closed the meet with its win in the 400 freestyle relay in a time of 3:31.11.
Men’s Meet
The men of WKU were dominant against both IUPUI and the small squad representing IU. German sophomore Fabian Schwingenschlogl earned mega points for the Hilltoppers in several events, winning the 100 breaststroke in a time of 56.06, the 200 breaststroke in 2:03.50, and the 200 IM in a time of 1:53.39. Schwingenschlogl, swimming the breaststroke leg, also helped the WKU 200 men’s medley relay swim to victory in a time of 1:31.92.
WKU Frenchman, Aymeric Le Corno (Junior) cruised to a victory in the men’s 1000 freestyle in a time of 9:30.12 and was just out-touched by teammate Cody Reul in the 500 freestyle, where he finished in 4:37.53 to Reul’s 4:37.48. Ruel won the 200 freestyle event earlier, clocking a time of 1:41.68. Seth Musser of WKU swept the backstroke distances, winning the 100 in a time of 50.45 and the 200 in a time of 1:51.16.
The first win for the IU squad came from Nick Wonder, who narrowly topped the 200 butterfly field in a time of 1:53.65. WKU’s John Smith was a very close second, coming in just one tenth behind with a time of 1:53.75. IU added another win to their column with Sam Lorentz’s swift 21.07 in the splash and dash 50 freestyle. Lorentz also clocked a swift time in the 100 freestyle event with a time of 46.90; second only to IUPUI’s Lennart Kuester who nabbed the other sub-47 time of 46.24, earning the Jaguar’s first individual win of the meet.
IUPUI closed out the meet winning the 400 freestyle relay. The foursome of Tony Carroll (47.44), Lennart Kuester (45.47), Trenton Wolfe (46.95), and Aaron Bryson (46.16) collectively clocked a 3:06.02 to score the final points of the competition.
The WKU Hilltopper men next take on the Purdue Boilermakers in West LaFayette, Indiana on November 7th, while the WKU Hilltopper women move on to Nashville, TN to take on Tulane/Vanderbilt. IUPUI men and women travel to Dayton, OH on November 8th to take on Marshall (w) and Wright State (m). Finally, the IU men’s next meet is listed as AT&T Winter Nationals in Greensboro, NC beginning on December 4th.
Tough break for the Hoosiers. WKU is one of those teams that you may be tempted to take lightly, but shouldn’t.