The Belles won their first dual meet in more than two years Saturday when they defeated Defiance, 152-50.
Saint Mary's athletes finished first in 12 of the 14 events contested against Defiance (1-4), a brand new program competing in its first-ever away meet. The Belles (1-3) last won a head-to-head matchup in January 2009, when they beat Albion, 167-124.
Saint Mary's showed no signs of fatigue despite competing in two meets the previous weekend and enduring several strenuous practices.
"It's been a pretty hard week for us training wise," Belles coach Mark Benishek said. "It was a tough week on the girls if you would ask them."
Belles senior captains appeared to thrive under the strenuous training conditions as they accounted for eight of the 12 first-place finishes and swam in both of the winning relays.
Megan Price swept the distance freestyle events, winning the 1,000-yard free in 11:33.98 and the 500-yard free in 5:37.20. Katie Smith took several sprint events, finishing first in the 100- and 200-yard free in 58.76 and 2:05.94, respectively. Audrey Dalrymple dominated the breaststroke, winning the 100- and 200-yard events in 1:11.31 and 2:32.06, respectively. She also took first in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing in 1:04.36.
Freshman Anna Nolan and junior Genevieve Spittler accounted for the other two individual wins. Nolan finished first in the 50-yard free in 26.74 and Spittler won the 200-yard butterfly in 2:28.41.
The Belles also dominated the relays. Nolan and Dalyrmple teamed up with junior KristynGerbeth and sophomore Sarah Thompson to win the 200-yard medley relay in 1:59.60, while Price, Gerbeth, Nolan and senior Katie Donovan won the 200-yard free relay in 2:05.94.
The Belles are already looking forward to future invites.
"We're still kind of building up for the two large invites we have coming up here at the beginning of Thanksgiving Break," Benishek said.
The Belles will return to the pool for the Wabash Invitational in Crawfordsville, Ind. at 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Contact Vicky Jacobsen at vjacobse@nd.edu
