In a long weekend of competition, the Irish took second place in the Dennis Stark Invitational on Friday before falling to both Auburn and Indiana in a dual meet Saturday.
The Irish (0-2) won four events Friday, taking the top spot in the 800-yard freestyle relay, the 300-yard breaststroke relay, and sweeping the diving events. Junior diver Allison Casareto and sophomore diver Lindsey Streepy won the 1-meter diving relay before Streepy and sophomore diver Emma Gaboury took the top prize in the 3-meter synchronized diving event.
Junior breaststroker Emma Reaney said she thought the Irish came out strong, considering it was their first competition.
"We've been working on the details from the beginning of the season and I think it definitely showed up this weekend," Reaney said. "It usually takes a while to get in the swing of competition, but I think we jumped right in and hit the ground running on Friday night."
The Irish lost some of their momentum Saturday. Despite Reaney's first-place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard butterfly, the Irish couldn't quite match their competitors. They fell 180-120 to Auburn (2-0) and had a tight 155-145 loss to Indiana (1-1).
"Both teams swam well," Reaney said. "We were closest with Indiana for both meets. They pretty much killed us at our dual meet last year, so the fact we were so incredibly close to beating them yesterday is a great sign of improvement for us."
Reaney said the Irish were neck-and-neck with the Hoosiers until the final relay.
"We fought hard to beat Indiana the whole way, but things didn't quite end up in our favor," Reaney said.
In the dual meet the Irish again dominated in diving, Casareto and Streepy snatching the top two spots on the 1-meter dive and Streepy finished in first in the 3-meter.
Bowen said despite the losses she's excited to see how far the Irish can go with their season.
"We did a great job coming together to support each other," Bowen said. "It really showed how competitive we could be and how much fun we could have doing it."
After such a long weekend of competition, the Irish will have plenty of time to rest before their next competition against Purdue on Nov. 1.
Contact Katie Heit at kheit@nd.edu
