MILWAUKEE- The Milwaukee women's swimming and diving team returned to the pool Saturday, welcoming IU Indianapolis to Klotsche Natatorium for its first dual meet of the season. The Panthers came away with the win by a final score of 213-84.
 
The MKE squad posted 11 individual victories on the day, led by a pair of event wins from both Janelle Schulz and Maddi Hayashi.
 
"Today was a great day for IU-Indy to come to town" said head coach Kyle Clements. "They are a very fast team, and they pushed us to be the best that we could be today. After five weeks of intrasquads and time trails, it was great to race another Horizon League team."
 
The Panthers started hot, having the top two finishing teams in the 200 medley relay, getting a first-place time of 1:45.07. They then closed the meet finishing first in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:36.60.
 
Milwaukee also had an outstanding effort in the 100 backstroke, with Mara Freeman (57.73), Skylar Ruggles (58.79), and Elli Moss (59.26) placing one, two, and three to earn big points for the team. Ruggles then came back in the 200 backstroke and won it with a time of 2:05.23.
 
In the 100 breaststroke, Gabrielle LePine (1:02.95) touched the wall almost six seconds before the second-place finisher. Then, in the 200 breaststroke, Nadia Switalski claimed first place with a time of 2:27.21.
 
The winning continued in the 200 butterfly as Maddi Hayashi (2:07.08) took the top spot, with Natalie DiProspero (2:07.29) right on her heels.  The pair of freshmen repeated the performance in the 100 fly, with Hayashi finishing in 57.51 and DiProspero posting a time of 58.30.
 
The Panthers had a great showing in the 50 freestyle where Janelle Schulz (24.13) came away on top, and Carly Plate (24.55) taking the second spot. Followed by the 100 freestyle with Schulz (52.71) again victorious, this time followed by Christiana Brooks (53.20).
 
Erika Thomas had the final individual win of the day for Milwaukee in the 200 individual medley, touching the wall in 2:08.47.
 
On the diving boards, Julie Rebek grabbed the top performance in the 3m with a score of 261.98. On the 1m dive, it was Therese Missiaen who came out on top with her score 251.33.
 
Clements finished saying, "Our best today is not what our best will become midseason and Horizon League. We have a long way to go and a lot of work to do, but I am looking forward to the process."
 
UP NEXT
 
The Panthers will compete again when they travel to Illinois for two meets. First a trip to Chicago to take on UIC on Friday Nov. 1 at 4:00 p.m. They are then back the next day, Saturday Nov. 2 at 1:00 p.m. to face off with Wheaton (Ill.).