Holland Reporter

The Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Lakers swim and dive teams achieved victories on both the men's and women's sides at the GVSU Invite, held in Allendale, Michigan. The Lakers competed against McKendree, Hope, and Saginaw Valley State universities over two days of events.

On the women's side, GVSU recorded significant wins with scores of 1362-294.5 against McKendree, 1362-776.5 against Hope, and 1362-316 against Saginaw Valley State. In individual events, Lucy Hedley won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:50.42 and also took first place in the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.32 seconds. Linda Frick placed third in the 200-yard freestyle.

Katie O'Connell secured victory in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:22.16, while Gaia Tomaselli finished third at 4:37.64. Vittoria Proietti won the 200 backstroke at 2:00.61; Alice Persson was third at 2:03.17.

Freshman Avery Rottier earned her first collegiate win by taking first place in the 100 butterfly with a time of 57.09 seconds; Kelly Shortall finished fifth in that event but was second in the 200 butterfly (2:08.18), followed by Tomaselli in third (2:09.02). Elliott McAlpine led a sweep for GVSU in the 200 breaststroke (2:17.92), with Sara Alvarez second and Liv Geiger third.

Relay teams also performed well for GVSU women, as Proietti, Villamil, Rottier and Hedley took first place in the 200 medley relay (1:43.39). Two other Grand Valley relay teams finished third and fourth respectively in that event; Zeinert, Rottier, Proietti and Hedley were members of the winning women's 400 relay team (3:25.44).

In diving competition for women, Olivia Kutsche earned first place on the three-meter board with a score of 272 points; Bella Larson came second followed by Bradleigh Palmer (third), Emi Goto (fourth) and Macy Polasek (fifth).

For men’s swimming events at this meet—though overall team scores were not provided—Raul Briceno claimed victory in the men's thousand-yard freestyle with a time of 9:20.77; freshman Berk Boz debuted for third place at nine minutes thirty-two point forty-four seconds.

Matti Gaebler won his debut race—the men’s four-hundred individual medley—in four minutes flat; Moritz Hesse was runner-up just over five seconds behind him.

Anton Rauch took top honors among men’s competitors for two-hundred backstroke finishing ahead of Jan Matejczuk who placed second; Evan Scotto DiVetta led another sweep for GVSU winning one-hundred freestyle followed by Mahmoud Abdelkarim then Carysn Christofell.

Andrew Goh finished first among men’s swimmers contesting two-hundred breaststroke; Jason Yeou—a freshman—placed third while Thomas Ferguson took bronze position for two-hundred butterfly races contested here as well.

The men’s two-hundred medley relay saw Matejczuk join forces with Andrew Goh along Ali Usama plus Scotto DiVetta to claim gold clocking one minute twenty-seven point fifty-one seconds while another Laker squad secured bronze placing there too.

Men's relays concluded successfully as Scotto DiVetta teamed up again—with Abdelkarim plus Matejczuk alongside Chrisoffel—for top spot touching home after two minutes fifty-six point sixty-six seconds elapsed.

Diving performances included Carter Wood scoring three hundred twenty-four point sixty-five points atop one-meter board standings while Max Schwickert rounded out podium places earning bronze position via scoring tally reaching two hundred seventy-one point sixty scored during that phase of meet proceedings.

According to organizers’ statement:

"The Grand Valley State Lakers will travel to the Venema Aquatic Center on Saturday, Oct. 18, for a tri-meet against Calvin University and Saginaw Valley State at 1 p.m." They noted further information would be shared later.