Kalamazoo, Mich. — The Aquinas women's swim and dive team competed today (Oct. 21) at their closest on the road contest to date against the Kalamazoo Hornets. The Saints would muster their gusto and collect themselves as they went on to defeat the Hornets 130-103. 

The women's 200 medley relay of Amelia Edens, Kennedy Pierce, Claire Hines and Lauren Mezeske set the tone for the meet in a tough battle, out-touching Kalamazoo to claim the win with a time of 1:55.44.

Sophomore Lily Heath dominated the 1,000 freestyle with a personal best time and clinching the win with a 12:01.66. Freshman Izzy Feltch finished in second place with a 12:11.29.

Freshman Chloe Boivin and sophomore Ella Althaver edged out Kalamazoo to finish first (2:06.42) and second (2:09.31) respectively in the 200 freestyle with season-best times.

Freshman Kennedy Pierce just narrowly edged out Kalamazoo to win the 50 freestyle by .15 seconds.

Freshman Emma Hale finished second in the 200 IM (2:30.95) and pulled out a win in the 200 backstroke with a 2:22.05.

The women's 200 backstroke was the highest point-scoring event of the day, with sophomore captain Katie Sanders finishing in third (2:36.29), junior Katrina Paolicchi in fourth (2:36.37), and freshman Ellie Hudson in fifth (2:36.48).

Sophomore captain Sarah Colvin set a new school record on the 1M board, winning the event with 191.85 points. She finished second on the 3M board to round out the diving events.

Chloe Boivin dominated the 100 freestyle with a 56.79. Boivin out paced the runner up by nearly two seconds.

Freshman Amelia Edens sealed the Saints' domination in all freestyle events by winning the 500 freestyle (5:30.46), shutting out Kalamazoo by winning every freestyle event of the day. Althaver finished in second with a season-best time of 5:51.90.

The 200 freestyle relay of Boivin, Hines, Mezeske and Edens finished first with a 1:43.07, nearly tying the school record.

Head coach Kristy Hepp had this to say about today's overall performance, "Our divers had a standout day today and just continue to improve each meet. ... Sarah [is] building confidence on the 3M boards. [The divers] are like a family and push each other every day in practice. At meets, they're scoring the most points for the team overall. We will continue to see big things out of them this year!"

"Kalamazoo provided a great competitive atmosphere for the closest dual meet of the season. Overall, I am so proud of the swimmers and divers on both the men's and women's side. We add multiple events to our all-time top 10 list each meet, and we've been able to play around with a few individuals' main events to make the strongest lineup at our conference championship. Our women rose to the occasion and competed at a level I haven't seen since starting this team two years ago, and it showed with the final results of the day.  Our men battled well today and displayed consistency, but we just couldn't pull out an overall victory. It was a great day of learning how to control emotions and mentality in the middle of our most challenging training block to date."

The women are returning to the Elkhart Aquatic Center (Oct. 28) for a 1 p.m. start time against Bethel and Lindsey Wilson in a dual head-to-head. Aquinas already faced both of these competitors early in the season, placing behind both Bethel and Lindsey Wilson. The Saints will see if their training and difficult competition will give them the edge to out splish and out splash at their rematch in Indiana.