The Hilltopper and Lady Topper swim teams added two more wins to their record, defeating Xavier on Friday and Cincinnati on Saturday.

The men’s team (4-0) beat Xavier 54-41 and the women’s team (4-0) won 55-39. Both the men and women’s 200-yard medley relay teams broke Xavier pool records.

Junior Megan Rames and senior Karl Swanson said the road trip to Cincinnati wore the teams out, making the Friday meet more difficult. But in the end, the smaller Xavier team was no match for Western.

A good night’s rest helped the teams prepare for the challenging meet against Cincinnati.

“Saturday everyone felt fantastic,” Rames said.

Rames, who was part of the record-breaking women’s medley relay team, also swims the freestyle relay and 50 freestyle. She said the team knew the meet would be close, and that while close meets make everyone nervous, it also makes them swim faster.

Saturday’s first race, the 200 medley relay, was Rames’ favorite of the weekend.

“We weren’t expecting to win it,” she said. “It set the tone for the rest of the meet.”

The Lady Toppers went on to beat the Bearcats 116-89 thanks to key wins in races such as the freestyle relay in which the women placed first and second.

Other top finishes include freshman Raichelle King, who broke the Western school record in the 1,000 freestyle in a time of 10:21. Fellow freshman Jessica Aspinall won the 200 backstroke (2:05.41) by eight tenths of a second.

“Events like that put us ahead,” said Coach Bruce Marchionda.

He predicted on Friday night that Western would win by one point. Saturday, Marchionda was proved correct when the Toppers won 103-102.

Swanson, who won the 500 freestyle (4:37), said early on the men’s team had a couple of races that didn’t turn out like they had hoped, but people started stepping up.

“It was neck and neck the whole meet,” Swanson said.

It came down to the last event, the freestyle relay. The Toppers had to either win the race or get both second and third place to earn enough points to win the meet.

Marchionda said he chose to set up the relays to go for the two/three finish. It was a safe bet, and it worked.

The Xavier and Cincinnati meets were scheduled back-to-back on purpose. Marchionda said it is not an easy thing to do, but it prepared the team for racing three days in a row at the conference championships.

“Saturday was a big step in the right direction,” Marchionda said. “Almost every one of our swimmers had their best in-season time.”

The Toppers and Lady Toppers have two weeks before their next meet. The Georgia Tech Invitational will be held November 18-20 in Atlanta.

Reach Laura Clark
at sports@wkuherald.com.