The Tiffin University Swimming Team completed an outstanding weekend of competition on Saturday at the Eastern Invite in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The team produced a lot of season best times as well as a few personal best times. "We still have so much work to do for the end of the year. Having said that, there were so many positives to take away from this competition. The great attitude of the team members there, how we approached the swims, what the results were and our reactions to those results. I am generally happy with the outcomes," said Head Coach Noah Moran.
The Invitational started on Friday evening where the Dragons quickly showed how they wanted to perform with sophomore Matt Laporte in the 1650 freestyle. Laporte's event was his season best time by just over 11 seconds to go 16:47.87.
The next swims for the Lady Dragons produced a new team record and personal best times from both Olivia Salome and Mari Johnson in the Women's 100 freestyle. Salome finished in fourth place with the new record of 52.26 while Johnson finished in 54.28.
The Men's team responded with season best times from all five of the swimmers entered in the 100 freestyle with Lucas Merigue leading the effort in 46.55 finishing in second place. Ygor Zanardo cracked the top ten in the event as well with a time of 47.66 for ninth place.
In the 200 yard breaststroke events, both Melinda Ulbrecht and Petko Toromanov swam their fastest times of the year going 2:35.63 and 2:03.81 respectively. Toromanov's swim put him in second place. The final individual event of the evening for the team was the Women's 200 butterfly. Both Tiffin swimmers posted season best times with Johnson in fifth place again achieving a personal best time in the event going 2:09.83. Kvitchenko's swim was a highlight in it being the only win for the Dragons during the session. She held off the field to win the event in 2:05.58.
"This was better than I thought we would be. The times from the swims were good for us at this time in the season. How we swam the races has continued to improve generally as well. To have all the swims be our best of the season is pretty good, not much rest to provide that real pop we want to see at the GLIAC Championships," said Moran.
Saturday's session continued the good efforts with Matt Campbell posting a personal best time in the 400 Individual Medley. In the women's 100 Butterfly, the duo of Kvitchenko and Johnson swam into the top ten with Kvitchenko going :57.33, her fastest of the season, and Johnson's fastest ever time in the event at :58.40. Salome made the only NCAA "B" cut for the Dragons in the women's 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:53.41 for second place in another TU swimming record.
Her fellow Brazilian teammates, Merigue and Zanardo, swam to third and eighth place respectively posting their season best times of 1:43.03 and 1:45.64. In the 100 Breaststroke events Ulbrecht finished in sixth place with her 1:07.03 time. Toromanov was able to place higher, finishing in another second place, with his :56.33.
"Really good to see for the first time this year we did not wait until after our first races to get going. Learning how to set ourselves up for the best possible result at the conference meet is what we are trying to do. So far, I think this should provide a lot of confidence to our team about what and how we are doing things in the pool. And again, a few personal and team records swum this morning help everyone feel pretty good about the direction of this team," said Moran.
The final session on Saturday evening moved the Dragon swimmers closer to their goals. Salome swam the 500 freestyle breaking her previous fastest time by over eight seconds to go 5:10.85. Laporte swam for the men to impressively drop almost fourteen seconds from his season best to place ninth in 4:45.65. Kvitchenko followed those swims with a third place finish in the women's 200 Individual Medley with a 2:10.29. Toromanov finished the men's 200 IM in sixth place with his season best time of 1:56.54. Finishing the individual races for the weekend, the Dragon showed some ability to sprint with Salome and Johnson achieving personal best times. Salome finished in third with a time of 24.16 while Johnson completed the swim in 25.10. The men also swam well to finish the meet for the Dragons with Zanardo being the top finisher, in :21.41 touching out Merigue in :21.48 for a six and seventh place result.
"Great to see the tired swimmers push through to that last event. Both the guys and ladies have a lot to take away from this weekend. Should be eye-opening for them in a lot of ways. Hopefully they recognize that we can still be faster in the end when we finally taper, but that the work they are doing is paying dividends. We have only a short amount of time left to get the work done, and really craft our skills for the end. Lot of good swims for us this weekend," said Moran.