Jessica Palacio
The Paw Print
Over the weekend the ASU Grizzly swimmers traveled to Shawnee, Oklahoma to compete against the Oklahoma Baptist University Buffalo in a two day dual meet.
The first meet kicked off Friday afternoon at the OBU home pool with the woman’s 200 meter medley relay. The Grizzlies relay of Jessica Palacio, Aspen Hann, Jennell Higgs, and Maggie Morris placed 2nd and were six seconds behind the Buffalo’s 1st place squad
The Men’s team also had a strong 2nd place finish in the 200 meter medley relay comprised of Clay Meschke, Ben Laxson, Nick Mankus and Shu Han Cheng.
The men continued the meet with several first place finishes, two of which were achieved by Mankus in the 200 meter IM and the 400 meter freestyle, the third victory was achieved by Laxson in the 100 meter breaststroke.
The women’s side also had two individual first place victories on Friday. Freshman Tara Gerbert swam a great race and was able to pull out a victory in the 400 meter freestyle and was followed by teammate Jordan Shomaker who came in 2nd. The women’s second victory came in the 100 meter breaststroke by Hann whom was also closely followed by teammate April Cunningham who came in with a 2nd place finish.
Friday’s meet finished with the 200 freestyle relay and saw both the Grizzly men and woman narrowly defeated.
Saturday morning saw both teams making the short drive into Oklahoma City to compete at the Oklahoma City Community College’s pool.
The morning started with an individual event rather than the typical relay. Freshman Kelsie Baggs started the meet off with a third place finish in the woman’s 100 yard backstroke with a solid time of 1:02.18, later on she also swam the 200 yard backstroke where she placed 2nd, four second ahead of teammate Palacio who placed 4th.
On the men’s side Meschke swept both of the backstroke events of the day. Starting the meet of with a victory in his 100 back Meschke was able to create great momentum for the grizzlies.
The men’s squad saw an impressive array of top three finishes with two more 1st place finishes by Mankus in the 500 yard freestyle and Laxson in the 200 yard breaststroke.
For the woman’s squad Hann also had a sweep in the breaststroke events, winning the 100 and the 200 yard breaststroke for the grizzlies. Teammate April Cunningham closely trailed Hann in both breaststroke events and came in a close second place finishes in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke.
For the woman other top finishes came from Higgs in the 200 yard butterfly where she placed first with a time of 2:19.69, and from freshman Allison Bischoff who placed first in the 500 yard freestyle.
While the grizzlies were unable to pull out a team victory either day, there were many strong individual finishes that should lead the grizzlies on into their next meet this Saturday against Mesa State.
The Grizzlies will take on Mesa State this Saturday at Plachy Hall for their first home meet of the season. For the women this will be a chance to defeat Mesa for a second time this season.
Please come out and show your support for the swim team this Saturday! Go Grizz!
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