The Valpo men's swimming team earned the first known dual meet win over Green Bay in team history Saturday at the Valparaiso Aquatic Center, while the women swim a double dual against Butler and Green Bay as the Beacons' home schedule continued. The program honored Garrett Hoppman (Midland, Texas/Midland) and Caroline Gorski (Melrose Park, Ill./Leyden) prior to the meet, as they competed in their final home meet prior to their December graduation.
 
How It Happened

• The Valpo men took first place in seven of the 12 individual events, including three 1-2 finishes, and claimed one of the two relays to defeat Green Bay, 146-116.
• It was a total team effort for the Beacon men, as six different swimmers combined for the seven individual event wins. Carson Parker (Silver Lake, Ind./Tippecanoe Valley) was the only Valpo swimmer with multiple individual victories, as the sophomores swept the breaststroke events with times of 57.52 in the 100 breast and 2:07.57 in the 200 breast.
• Swimming his final home meet, Hoppman took top honors in the 100 fly with a time of 50.81, moving up to sixth place in program history in the event, and also claimed second place in the 200 fly with a time of 1:55.50. He flip-flopped finishes in the fly events with teammate Timothy Mai (St. Johns, Fla./Creekside), who won the 200 fly with a time of 1:55.08 and came home second in the 100 fly with a time of 51.38.
• Caleb Smesko (Green, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) and Jackson Oostman (Aurora, Ill./Marmion Academy) went 1-2 in the 100 back with times of 52.30 and 52.55, respectively. Smesko later paced Valpo in the 200 back with a time of 1:56.91, while Oostman's time of 1:57.59 made him the fastest Beacon in the 200 IM.
• Anthony Martin (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett) paced the Beacons in the sprint free events, touching the wall first in the 100 free in 47.23 after covering the 50 free in 21.76.
• Evan Curran (Golden, Colo./Golden) took top honors in the 200 free with a time of 1:43.47.
• Leading Valpo in the distance free events was Logan Walliker (Washington, Ill./Washington), whose 1000 free time of 10:00.84 was ninth-fastest in program history, and Gabriel Corkran (Avondale Estates, Ga./Druid Hills), who covered the 500 free in 4:50.18.
• The men opened the meet with a relay win in the 200 medley relay, as Oostman, Ben Mettler (Sussex, Wis./Hamilton), Hoppman and Curran covered the distance in 1:34.34.
• On the women's side, the Beacons boasted three individual event wins against their pair of opponents, including two swims which featured massive drops in PRs. Kailyn Benoit (Sussex, Wis./Hamilton) nearly snagged the program record in the 200 fly with a winning time of 2:07.61, just .07 off the record time. Benoit won the event by over three seconds and dropped nearly two full seconds off her PR, and later led Valpo in the 100 fly as well with a time of 59.38.
• Natalie Eaton (Tulsa, Okla./Jenks) had a similar kind of swim in the 200 breast as she won the event by nearly two seconds. Eaton moved up to sixth in program history with a time of 2:25.92, slicing 1.5 seconds off her PR. That swim came after she had earned a runner-up finish with a team-best time of 1:06.94 earlier in the afternoon, moving up into seventh place in program history in that event.
• Audrey Morgan (Villa Park, Ill./Willowbrook) rounded out the Beacon women's trio of event wins by emerging on top of the 200 free with a time of 1:56.35. Later in the meet, the freshman posted a team-best time of 5:15.61 in the 500 free as well.
• Una Dizdarevic (Bloomingdale, Ill./Lake Park) and Sophie Schoch (Medina, Ohio/Medina) led the Valpo women in a pair of events Saturday. Dizdarevic finished second in the 50 free with a time of 24.84, and followed with a team-best time of 55.09 in the 100 free. Schoch was the fastest Beacon in the 100 back (1:00.23) and the 200 back (2:11.24).
• Ally Unruh (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap) posted a team-best time of 10:57.63 in the 1000 free, while Elaina Rezabek (Pingree Grove, Ill./Hampshire) led the Valpo contingent with a time of 2:18.26 in the 200 IM.
• The women's team lost the dual meet scoring to Butler, 150-112, and to Green Bay, 147-115.

 
Next Up
Valpo will take next weekend away from competition as it prepares for its major mid-season meet, the Miami Invitational in Oxford, Ohio. The four-day event begins Wednesday, Nov. 19.