Feb. 6, 2004

Complete Results

MADISON - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men and women's swimming and diving team headed to Madison Friday night for a double-dual meet against the University of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay with the idea of swimming a solid meet two weeks before the Horizon League Swimming and Diving Championships (2/25). The Panthers unfortunately fell into the traps of having their athletes at different points of their training and couldn't overcome one of the top swimming programs in the country in the form of the Badgers and a tough Horizon League opponent in the Phoenix. The Panther men finished the day 0-2 after falling to Wisconsin (159-79) and UW-Green Bay (151-92). The Panther women didn't fair much better on the team side as they also finished 0-2 at the hands of Wisconsin (171-69) and UW-Green Bay (147-94).

"We have some athlete that are in different stages of their training," Panther head coach Dave Clark said. "It's difficult to put a completely solid team performance together when the athletes are going through that."

The Panther men, attempting to overcome the issue of training levels, received some good individual performance by Michael Belting, Josh Baseheart and Jeff Jasinowski. Belting, a junior out of Owatonna, Minn., swam to a first-place finish in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:45.37) and a second-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle (4:46.13). Baseheart, a senior out from Milwaukee, claimed two second-place finishes. One of the more consistent swimmers throughout the year, Baseheart placed second in the 100-yard freestyle (45.54) and in the 200-yard freestyle (1:44.21). Jeff Jasinowski, a sophomore diver from Bayside, placed first on the 3-meter board (279.20) and third on the 1-meter board (206.55) to round out the top Panther individual performance.

The Panther women had a tough time throughout the competition, but saw encouraging performances from Becky Rubel, Hannah Burgard and Lindsay Caldwell. Rubel, a senior diver from Grafton, claimed a team-best second-place finish on the 3-meter diving board (271.95). Burgard, a senior from West Bend, finished third for the UWM women on the 1-meter board (235.25) during the competition. Caldwell, a freshman from West Bend, was a part of two third-place finishes for the Panthers. Proving to be one of the top freshmen swimmers in the Horizon League, Caldwell placed third in the 50-yard freestyle (24.68) and was a part of the Panthers' third-place 200-yard freestyle relay team (1:40.99).

"We got touched out in some events tonight," Clark added. "It's bound to happen sometimes, but I think that we'll walk away with some lessons learned from this meet and will get ourselves ready for the league championships."

With two and a half weeks of training ahead of them, the Panther men and women will get themselves set for the Horizon League Swimming and Diving Championships on February 25. The four-day event will take place down in Chicago, Ill.