Ripon College Days

Media Credit: Photo by Andrew Krajewski And they're off! A women's swimmer prepares to dive off the starting block in a tough meet last weekend at Lawrence University. [Click to enlarge]

The Red Hawk swimmers faced tough competition last Friday and Saturday at the two-day Gene Davis Invitational held by Lawrence University in Appleton. Despite the challenges posed, both teams came in seventh place at the nine-team invitational.

Besides the three Midwest Conference teams, Lawrence, Ripon and Beloit, there were five Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Conference teams present, including UW-Eau Claire, Whitewater, Oshkosh, River Falls and Stevens Point. UW-Green Bay, a Division One school, was also present.

Despite facing much larger schools, the Red Hawks held their ground - in the water - and both the men and the women defeated Beloit and Stevens Point.

"We did really well," says senior Johnny Gausewitz. "Especially considering where we are in the season."

Senior Brian Macak adds, "We were ahead of some of the bigger schools at the end of day one, but they had a lot more swimmers and they caught up to us in the second day."

It was an especially good day for senior Emmy Giovanni who broke the school record in the 400 meter individual medley with a time of 5:02.18.

The previous record of 5:06.09 has been in the record books since 1993.

Gausewitz also had a big day, coming fifth in the 200 breaststroke, fifth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:06.3 and sixth place in the 100 butterfly with a time of 56.31.

On the woman's side, in the 100 butterfly senior Ksenia Borisova finished in 1:05.94.

First year Becca LaClair also had a strong showing. She came in ninth in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:33.96.

"This was the biggest meet of the year so far...there were 30 or 40 swimmers in almost every event," Macak says. "So while ninth might not sound so great, [it's] actually quite good."

Macak did well in the 200 backstroke, coming in eight with a time of 2:13.98.

Gausewitz was quite pleased with how the meet turned out despite getting seventh. "We're swimming with the bigger schools right now, and we're only going to get better," he says. "Not everyone swam exceptionally well, but for where we are in the season, the times are good and we're well on our way to getting to where we want to be by the time of the conference meet."

The Red Hawks will swim in their sole home meet of the season, the Alumni Meet, Friday, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. in the Storzer pool.

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