Oct. 20, 2013

Results

MILWAUKEE - Emily McClellan broke one pool record and the 200 medley relay broke another as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's swimming & diving team kicked off the 2013-14 season with an impressive 191-112 win over Grand Valley State University at the Klotsche Natatorium Saturday afternoon.

Milwaukee dominated all day long, winning all but three events in the first meet of the season.

Results were delayed due to a technical issue with the scoring system following the meet.

"It was a good start for us and a good starting point," Milwaukee head coach Kyle Clements said. "In a meet like that, that's what we're looking for. You're looking to see where you currently are and where you can go from there and we learned a lot about both teams yesterday.

"On the women's side, we knew we had some depth and we knew we were going to be able to swim some people in some off events and you really say that yesterday. Sierra in the 200 IM, Natalie in the 200 fly, Emily in the 100 fly, we were able to throw some people in different events and get some positive results and that's good for us going forward in knowing what we have."

The Panthers started their season with a new pool record in their very first event. Becky Yokosh, McClellan, Leah Winckler and Anna Yontz combined to swim the 200 medley relay in an impressive 1 minute, 45.71 seconds, nearly a full second faster than the previous Klotsche record set just one year ago.

Milwaukee's second team took second in the event as Erika Pliner, Natalie Johnson, Mary Kuyvenhoven and Diana Diel finished at 1:49.96 for second.

UWM continued its dominance right out of the gates as sophomore Abby Duke won the 1000 free, touching the wall first in 10 minutes, 58.95 seconds. Kaela Ropson was right behind in third at 11:01.46.

Sophomore Kelsey Abbas continued the trend, taking first in the 200 freestyle with a winning time of 1:56.03.

Milwaukee took four of the top-five spots in the 100 backstroke. Yokosh ran away with the event with a winning time of 58.37, more than two seconds ahead of second place. Pliner (1:01.00) was third, freshman Kiersten Seidel (1:01.73) was fourth and Emily Dean (1:02.77) placed fifth.

Then it was McClellan's turn to set a new Klotsche record. The senior standout cruised to victory in the 100 breaststroke with an NCAA B-cut time of 1:01.47, breaking her own pool record set last November by over a full second. Senior Lindsey Verhulst just missed taking runner-up, touching the wall at 1:07.89 for third.

The Panthers went 1-2 in the 100 free as Yontz won the race in 52.64, followed closely by Diel at 52.90.

Johnson won the 200 butterfly in 2:07.67. Yokosh took first in the 200 back at 2:07.15, winning by nearly two and a half seconds. Verhulst took the top spot in the 200 breast at 2:26.14 and McClellan won the 100 fly with a winning time of 57.92.

Sierra Townsend easily placed first in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:07.63 with freshman Kristin Zablocki taking second overall in 2:12.93.

In the 500 free, Milwaukee again took the top two spots. Abbas came in first at 5:10.78 while Hilary Woldt was right behind at 5:15.83 for second.

In diving, sophomore Rachel Margis was second on both boards, scoring 244.12 on the one-meter and 255.15 on the three-meter.

With the meet already in hand, UWM closed the day out with an exclamation point in the 200 free relay. Yontz, Johnson, McClellan and Diel just missed another pool record for the Panthers with a first-place finish in 1:36.69, nearly two seconds ahead of second place.

"The women are just going to be a tough team," Clements said. "They have the right combination of old and new and we really didn't have a weak event yesterday. Going into next week, you're going to see a lot of those women moving around and just how deep we actually are."

Milwaukee hits the road for the first time this season with a pair of conference meets next weekend. The Panthers will take on Valparaiso Friday afternoon in Indiana before heading to Dayton, Ohio to take on Wright State Saturday.