photo courtesy of sports information The men's swimming and diving team started their season off with a bang as they finished in first place at the season opener.

The Calvin College swim teams started out their seasons with strong performances at the GVSU relays last Saturday when the men took first place for the fourth consecutive year and the women took third.

The Calvin men scored 132 points, six points in front of second place Wayne State University. The Calvin women tallied 110 points, which left them just eight points behind second place Wayne State and 24 points behind host Grand Valley.

On their way to first place, the men won seven of the 12 relay events to set the tone for the meet. Calvin won the 300-meter butterfly relay (2:44.50), the 300 backstroke relay (2:49.55), 800 freestyle relay (7:24.92), 400 medley relay (3:48.46), 200 freestyle relay (1:29.68), 1500 freestyle relay (15:45.31), and the 400 freestyle relay (3:17.46).

Leading Calvin in the 300 butterfly relay, which broke the Grand Valley relays meet record, were freshman Brad White, junior Bryan Linn and sophomore A.J. Penninga.

The 300 backstroke relay was made up of sophomore Ryan Johnson, freshman Cory Draper and sophomore Jake VanderPlas. Leading the way for the Knights in the 200 freestyle relay were junior Jordan Zacharia, junior Kevin Hawkins, Penninga and White.

The 1500 freestyle relay was made up of freshman Dan Hekman, junior Chris Veltman and Zacharia while its 400 freestyle was Penninga, Zacharia, Veltman and White. Calvin was also victorious in the 800 freestyle relay, which consisted of Veltman, Zacharia, Hekman and Penninga.

The Knights claimed victory in the 400 medley relay with freshman Mike Dallas, VanderPlas, Draper and Linn.

The Calvin women won two of their relays, taking the 500 freestyle relay (4:56.35) and the 200 freestyle relay (1:42.19). Leading the Knights to victory in the 500 freestyle relay were juniors Erin Kloostra and Kate Conrad along with sophomores Katie Nagelkirk and Jenny Los. The winning 200 freestyle relay team was made up of Nagelkirk, Conrad, Kloostra and sophomore Ann Kuiper.

photo courtesy of sports information In the first meet of their season, the women's swimming and diving team finished a proud third.

“Both teams looked well on Saturday”, commented head coach Dan Gelderloos. “We were not looking at final standings but looking more for some quality swims.” In looking for some quality swims on the women’s side Gelderloos points to his six returning All-MIAA selctions from last year that include Katie Conrad, Katie Nagelkirk, Erin Kloostra, Ann Kuiper, Ginni Baker and Liesje Konyndyk.

“This is the biggest and most talented group I have ever had”, said Gelderloos. “One of our goals this year is to win the MIAA”, he noted, “but we need to take it one meet at a time.”

“I am excited to be a part of this team”, remarked freshman Amy Youngquist. “If we work together as a team I think we can accomplish our goals.” In addition to Youngquist, some other exciting freshmen to watch throughout the year are Jane Visser, Katie Hamstra and Brittney Stevens.

On the men’s side Calvin returns 11 letterwinners from last year and looks to build on them. One of the main standouts is sophomore A.J. Penninga who was named All-MIAA last year. Other returners are seniors David Becksvoort and Chris Clark, juniors Kevin Hawkins, Bryan Linn, Chris Veltman and Jordan Zacharia and sophomores Ryan Johnson, Brian Koster, Kevin Katerberg and Jake VanderPlas.

“We are not quite as deep as last year, but we are extremely talented,” commented Gelderloos. “Our goal this year is to compete with Kalamazoo and Hope”. (Kalmazoo and Hope have combined for the last 28 conference crowns.)

While building on the strong core group of swimmers already established, Calvin also has quite a bit of freshman talent. The freshmen to watch are Brad White, Mike Dallas, Cory Draper and Joel Voss.

“I am looking to improve my personal best in the breaststroke and maybe even challenge the school record,” Dallas said. “We also have high hopes of sending a freshman-sophomore 200 or 400 medley relay to the nationals this year.”

The swim teams’ next meets will be at home on Friday, Nov. 3 at 6 p.m. against Wayne State.