The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee might want to consider a name change in light of this weekends swim meet.

The Salmon would be appropriate.

In rivalry week fashion, the Panthers men and women swim teams faced off against the defending Horizon League champions University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Phoenix. Not only did the Panthers win, but they won with ease taking 11 out of the 13 events. The men’s team completely dominated Green Bay with a 169-74 victory ending a seven-dual losing streak dating back to 1999. Senior Chase Gravengood, sophomore PJ Rongitsch, and freshman Jake Kalinowski each one two events to lead the team to an incredible victory and senior Jeremy Seibel narrowly missed a Panther record in the 200 meter breaststroke, which he won with a time of 2:08.27. The record is 2:08.01, but Seibel’s time was good enough for a season high. As for the women’s team, it was much of the same as the Panthers won 137-106. This event was more than just a victory for the women’s team; it was a payback for the heartbreaking one point loss (122-121) last year in their dual against Green Bay. Senior Jess Kelly won two individual events and freshman Danielle Wenger won the 1,000 meter freestyle to help pave the way for a victory. The win was the seventh straight dual win for the Panthers as they snapped a ten dual winning streak that the Phoenix brought to the Natatorium.

As it was senior night, I got a chance to talk to Jess Kelly and Chase Gravengood about how big this win was for them, being seniors on the team and this being the last home event. Jess said “This whole meet no one was asking about their own times, but asking about how relay did or how so and so did. It was a team effort and everyone really stuck together. I was just really excited to beat Green Bay and so was everyone.” Chase said that “This victory means so much more to this team than it does for just me. It was great, but it was so much better for this team.”

Freshmen Jake Kalinowski and Danielle Wenger were asked to pick the leaders on the team and Jake jokingly replied “Do I have to pick just one? I mean Chase, (David) Yugo, and Andrew (Belton) are big leaders on this team, they keep everyone pumped.” Danielle says that “Jess (Kelly) is really intense. She leads us in cheers and just never lets anyone give up.”

In his second year of coaching at UWM, Dave Griffore had this to say about the dual. “It’s really huge to have a home pool advantage. Last year the girls lost by just one point to Green Bay and this year we beat them by 31 so it’s pretty big. Green Bay is always going to be the team to beat and this year I think both our men’s and women’s teams have a really good shot of making it. It’s been a while for our men’s team so they really want to prove themselves.”

Starting February 20th, the Panthers men’s and women’s swim teams will be heading to Cleveland for the Horizon League Championships.

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