The University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin men and women’s swimming teams won three out of four match-ups against UIC, Butler and North Dakota in Chicago on Saturday. While the women strolled past UIC and Butler, the men split theirs meets, losing 161-138 to UIC and beating North Dakota 159-139.

The women, winning both of their match-ups by wide margins, saw leadership from the whole team. Juniors Molly Finn and Ashley Hall each won in their swimming and diving events. Finn won both the 400 IM and 200 butterfly and placed second in the 100 fly with her season best time, 0:59.17. Diving strong in both events, Hall won them both, something she has now done three times this season.

UWM also recorded victories by Shannon Berndt in the 200 breaststroke (2:25.37), Kerry Rossow in the 100 breast (1:06.54) and Danielle Wenger’s season best (5:08.81) in the 500 freestyle.

Head Coach Dave Griffore said he was pleased with the women’s showing.

“Danielle Wenger’s 500 was what we were waiting for,” Dave Griffore said.

Rossow also placed second in the 200 breast, as did Wenger in the 1,650 freestyle. Berndt took third in the 100 breast. Rossow, Kate Riebe and Amanda Nelson scooped up a victory in the 200 medley race (1:49.83).

Similar to the women’s team, the men’s team was coming off a strong performance last week in Wheaton. Unable to hold down UIC, the men came out on top against North Dakota.

“We swam better at Wheaton as a team. We knew we would beat Wheaton, we just wanted to swim better than we have so far,” Griffore said.

The team received strong performances from Robby Leibold again, along with Chase Gravengood, Jeremy Waldhart, Dan Heraly and P.J Rongitsch. Leibold placed first in the 1650 freestyle (16:19.22) and recorded his season-best time in the 500 freestyle (4:42.26), while finishing third in the 200 fly (1:55.67). He now has nine wins in 14 races this season.

“Robby is off to a great start this year and we knew he was capable of it,” Griffore said.

Heraly followed up right behind Leibold in the 500 free and placed second. Gravengood showed exuberant effort in three second place finishes in the 400 IM, 100 fly and 200 breast, in which he finished half a second away from a victory. He also participated in the 200 medley relay in which the team finished third.

Waldhart finished first in the 200 backstroke (1:56.26) and participated in the 100 backstroke and 200 medley relay. Rongitsch contributed greatly, mimicking women’s diver Hall by sweeping the diving events.

Leibold was named Horizon League men’s Scholar-Athlete of the month for October. Within the month, he recorded four victories and four second-place finishes. As a Health Sciences major, Leibold has maintained a 3.85 grade-point average.

“He is an outstanding student, which makes him the perfect student-athlete to have on your team,” Griffore said of Leibold. “All my athletes know that they are here to complete a degree, and that is always number one. There athletics come second and they also need to keep it in that order, and if they do they will be successful in both the classroom and in the pool.”

Coming into this event, Griffore said this would be a true test for his team. He also said that even though the training has been great, the team needs to compete better.

The next meet for both men’s and women’s teams will be the Wheaton Invitational and Miami (Ohio) diving Invitational on Nov. 30.

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