RIVER FALLS, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – The UW-Eau Claire men's swimming & diving team recorded strong results in two different competitions this weekend, highlighted by a dominating win over UW-River Falls Friday evening. The Blugolds also competed at the River City Relays hosted by UW-La Crosse on Saturday.
At the River Falls meet, the Blugolds won 254-50, earning 13 victories and placing in the top three 36 times. In total, the Blugolds swept the top three spots in nine different events.
Alex Card (So.-Prior Lake, Minn.) and Jake McDade (Fr.-Monona, Wis./Monona Grove) led the Blugolds with two individual wins apiece. Card finished first in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley races with respective times of 100.16 and 2:04.07. McDade claimed his wins with a 1:49.90 effort in the 200-yard freestyle and a time of 5:00.98 in the 500-yard freestyle.
Seven other Blugolds picked up victories in individual events, including Aaron Lickel (So.-Madison, Wis./East), Spencer Rose (So.- Brookfield, Wis./Central) and Ben Epperly (So.- Schaumburg, Ill.), who earned wins in the respective 50, 100 and 1,000-yard freestyle races. In the butterfly competitions, Alex Plaetzer (Sr.- Rochester, Minn./John Marshall) and Evan Koch (Fr.-Oak Creek, Wis.) tallied first-place finishes in the respective 100 and 200-yard events. Justin Birkeli (So.-Minneapolis, MN/South) and Jonathan Poppele (Sr.-Maple Grove, Minn./Wayzata) each nabbed wins in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke races.
The Blugold relay teams also had dominating results at the River Falls meet. The Eau Claire "A" and "B" teams swept the top two spots in both the 200-yard medley and freestyle relays. The A team completed the medley relay in just 1:43.79 while its counterpart in the freestyle event finished in 1:33.27.
Eau Claire totaled 92 points at the River City Relays to take third out of five teams. UW-Stevens Point topped the leader board with 154 points while host La Crosse placed second with 106 points.
Eau Claire's two second place finishes highlighted the team's performance. The 'A' team finished runner-up in the 300 individual medley (3x100) relay with a time of 2:49.97. The Blugolds also completed the 300-yard breaststroke race in 3:11.74 for second. In total, Eau Claire finished in the top-three spots six times.
Next up, Eau Claire will participate in the Falcon Invite hosted by UW-River Falls. The two-day competition is scheduled to begin Friday, Dec. 2.
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