The season opener for both the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee men’s and women's swimming teams on Friday in Madison against the Badgers didn’t finish with a win, but both squads gave it their all. The men’s team lost 154-85 to the Badgers, while the women dropped their first 166-72.

The Panthers won only one event, the 1000 freestyle by junior Robby Leibold. Leibold finished with a time of 9:41, which gave him over an eight second win against Wisconsin's Mike Swanson.

Leibold also finished second in the 500 freestyle. The other Panther that had a good performance was sophomore Patrick Rongitsch who recorded NCAA qualifying scores in both diving events. His score on the one meter board was 318.75 points and 335.70 points on the three meter board. Both scores set his new personal high for those events.

Other notable finishes for men’s team was a second place finish for senior Chase Gravenhood in 100 butterfly and a third place finish in the 100 intermediates.

Sophomores Jeremy Waldhart and Cody Smith had second place finishes. Waldhart finished second in the 100 backstroke and Smith finished 200 in the breaststroke. The win for the Badgers improved them to 3-0 on the season and put the men’s panther team at 0-1.

Coming into the meet, the women knew they were facing one of the better swimming programs in the country. The Badgers dominated with a final score of 166-72. The Panthers did have some nice accomplishments with four second-place finishes.

Senior Jess Kelly finished second in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.65 just fewer than two seconds by behind McClung of the Badgers. Junior Kate Riebe had a solid performance in her first meet as a panther with a second place finish in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:00.91.

Sophomore Kerry Rossow finished second in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:06. Another newcomer to the Panther’s, freshman Amanda Nelson, finished in second the 100 butterfly.

The star of the night for the Panthers was junior Ashley Hall who led the team in the meet with two third place finishes on the one and three meter boards for the diving events. The win for the Badgers in the meet improved them to 3-0 on the season and the Panthers fell to 0-1.

The men’s and women’s swimming teams will look for their first win in the conference opener this Friday at Wright State.

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