St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 25, 2015 – The Washington University in St. Louis men's and women's swimming & diving teams opened the 2015-16 season with both teams defeating NCAA Division I Saint Louis University in a dual meet Friday evening at Millstone Pool.
The WashU men won seven events en route to a 125-114 victory over the Billikens. It marked the first time the WashU men have defeated SLU since the 2009-10 season. The WashU women claimed six event victories as they earned a 125-116 win over SLU. It was just the second time the Bears have defeated the Billikens in the last 25 years with the other victory coming in 2013.
Freshmen Lauren Sapp and Kevin Van Cleave, and sophomore Ryan Nathenson each won a pair of individual events for the Bears. In one of the loudest races of the meet, Van Cleave erased more than a two-second differential on the freestyle leg to overtake SLU's Austin Nguyenphu for first in the 200 individual medley. Van Cleave out-touched Nguyenphu to win the race by six-hundredths of a second with a time of 1:56.72. Later in the meet, Van Cleave held off Nguyenphu for first in the 100 backstroke with a time of 53.68.
Sapp won the women's 50 free in 25.09, five-hundredths ahead of junior teammate MariMac Collins. She added a second individual event title in the 100 free with a time of 54.67, before anchoring WashU to a first-place finish in the final women's event of the meet, the 200-free relay. She teamed with sophomore Niamh O'Grady, junior Claire Savage and senior Kristalyn McAfee to win the event in a time of 1:39.58.
Nathenson finished first in both the one-meter and three-meter diving events. He posted a score of 197.02 to win the one-meter diving by more than 30 points, then placed first in the three-meter diving with a score of 177.60. Junior Emily Ramos (205.95) and sophomore Laura Barber (199.25) placed first and second, respectively, in the women's one-meter diving.
Sophomore Ross Brown won the men's 50 free by nearly four-tenths of a second with a time of 21.94. In the final event of the meet, Brown swam a furious leg to anchor the WashU men to a first-place finish in the 200-free relay. He joined seniors Kaisen Yao and Reed Dalton, and sophomore TJ Dawson in clocking a time of 1:25.76 to win by more than 0.5 of a second. Yao, junior Michael Lagieski, Dalton and junior Justin Morrell also won the 200-medley relay by more than two seconds with a time of 1:34.75.
O'Grady led a first- through fourth-place sweep for the WashU women in the 100 butterfly. She clocked a winning time of 58.03, while senior Amanda Stadermann (1:00.94), junior Lauren Carlos (1:01.45) and senior Toireasa Rafferty-Millett (1:01.49) followed in second through fourth, respectively. Carlos also teamed with seniors Katie Anderson and Sophie Gan, and Collins to win the first event of the meet, the 200-medley relay, in a time of 1:50.59.
The Washington University men's and women's swimming & diving teams return to action Friday, Oct. 2, at the Show-Me Showdown hosted by the University of Missouri. The meet is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. in Columbia, Mo.
