The men and women’s NMU swim teams both won against Findlay last Friday and Saturday with records being broken at the PEIF by sophomore Rachel Helm and a women’s relay team.
“We were happy to have broken the records,” said head swim coach Heidi Voigt. “Rachel is definitely a gold driven athlete.”
The women’s team won 11 events on Friday with a score of 155-99. Helm achieved five first place finishes with the 25-yard breaststroke, 75-yard backstroke and 125-yard individual medley. The next day the women’s team won again with a score of 182-112 in which the team set two new pool records. The relay team of Helm, freshman Lena Soulas, and junior Becca Arakelian set a PEIF pool record for the 200-yard medley with a time of 1:46.12.
Helm set a PEIF pool 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:00.76 and achieved an NCAA B-Cut provisional qualification. Before she had set the record, Helm had told Voigt that her goal was to beat the record during warm ups. Once she had beaten the record, she had told Voigt, “I told you so.”
But Voigt expressed an expectation of improvement from Helm as she can obtain an NCAA A-Cut with improving three seconds faster. Voigt is hoping that Helm can achieve this time around December.
“We would like to work up to where we can focus on Nationals,” Voigt said. “I’m pretty confident she’ll go. It would be nice if she can make A-Cut and just know for sure. If we can keep her healthy, I think she’s going to have a great year.”
The men’s team won every event on Friday with a score of 177-77. Three NMU swimmers achieved two first place victories and the divers won the one-meter diving event, with a score of 255.75, and the three-meter diving event with a score of 222.53. On Saturday the men’s team took victory once again by winning 14 events in which junior Charlie Pavlak achieved an NCAA Championships qualification with a score of 288.45.
The men’s and women’s teams will swim this weekend at St. Cloud State University to face St. Cloud, Minnesota State-Moorhead and Northern State University.
Both the men’s and women’s St. Cloud teams are coming off a lose against University of Wisconsin-Green Bay while Minnesota State-Moorhead has claimed wins over the Northern State University Wolves and the University of Mary Marauders.
