EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) - The UW-Eau Claire men's swimming & diving team followed up its big win last week with another dominating 106-28 performance over UW-River Falls today at the McPhee Physical Education Center.
The Blugolds earned first place in all but one of their 13 events. Nick Badilla (So.-Appleton, Wis./North), Chris Paradeise (Sr.-Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) and Alex Plaetzer (Jr.-Rochester, Minn./John Marshall) each won two individual events to help propel the team to victory. Badilla won both the one and three-meter dives, scoring a 335.70 in the three-meter event.
Paradeise notched two victories in the 500 and 1,000-yard freestyle competitions with respective times of 5:08.36 and 10:35.25 minutes. Plaetzer first picked up a win by swimming the 50-yard freestyle in 22.87 seconds and followed it up with a second victory in the 100-yard freestyle race.
Eau Claire also tallied wins with Ben Epperly's (Fr.-Schaumburg, Ill.) time of 1:53.46 in the 200-yard freestyle and Corey Groshens (So.-St. Louis Park, Minn./Hopkins) in the 200-yard individual medley. Tommy Dahl (Sr.-Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins) grabbed his win in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:06.08 and Miles Hegg (Fr.-McFarland, Wis.) laid down a time of 2:27.19 in the 200-yard breaststroke event for the win.
The Blugold relay teams also picked up victories in the meet. The team of Alex Card (Fr.-Prior Lake, Minn.), Hegg, Aaron Lickel (Fr.-Madison, Wis./East) and Epperly nailed the 200-yard medley relay in just 1:45.62 minutes. Lickel, Card, Epperly and Jacob Gramling (Jr.-Brookfield, Wis./East) also notched the top finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay in a quick 1:31.97.
The Blugolds will try to continue its winning ways at 1 p.m. tomorrow when they will participate in the UW-La Crosse Relays.