Swimming excels at Butler Invitational

The Xavier men's and women's swimming team traveled to

Fischers, Ind. last weekend to compete in the Butler Invitational. Both teams finished second place in their divisions, including three first place finishes in the relays. The men tallied 697 points while the women finished with 521 points for the invitational. Xavier had 10 swimmers finish in first place in the individual events. The Musketeers had a strong showing in the 200-yard medley relay, capturing first place in both the men's and women's events. The women's team, which consisted of freshmen Carolyn Stewart and Madison Day, juniors Courtney

Shields and Anne Frigo finished with a time of 1:49.60 minutes. The men's relay team touched the wall in a time of 1:34.71. The men's relay team was made up of juniors Sam Conchuratt and David Maxwell, senior Chadeau

Wilson and sophomore Armando Moss. Xavier also took first place in the men's 400-yard freestyle relay, thanks to the efforts of Conchuratt, senior Michael Zennedjian, junior Pablo Morejon and Moss. The team's finishing time of 3:08.15 was six seconds faster than the second place team from Ball State University.

Xavier also performed well in the individual swimming events. On the men's side, sophomore Chad Thompson picked up two first place finishes, one in the 200-yard backstroke and another in the 200-yard individual medley.

Freshmen Kiernan McGeehan and Alex Huff both turned in first place performances in the 1650-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle, respectively. Freshman Eric Durvin barely edged out teammate Conchuratt in the 200-yard

freestyle. In addition to his top relay finishes, Moss also captured a victory in the men's 100-yard freestyle.

On the women's side, sophomore Courtney Cox finished nearly 20 seconds ahead of her closest competitor with her time of 17:45 in the 1650-yard freestyle. Cox also finished first in the 500-yard freestyle. Shields earned a first

place finish in the 10 yard butterfly when she touched the wall at 59.44 seconds. Frigo finished the 100-yard freestyle at 53.39 seconds, earning her a top place finish.

Head coach Brent MacDonald was pleased with the performances of both teams. "We finished out a lot of races

and we saw a lot of people have season bests, which is great for this time of year," MacDonald said.

The meet was held on Sunday instead of Saturday, which allowed for extra rest for many swimmers, MacDonald said. With four weeks remaining before conference championships, Xavier has time to work on the technical aspects of the meet.

"We can continue to improve on starting, our turns and other

race strategies," MacDonald said.