By Adekale Ande, Campus Carrier Assistant Sports Edititor

Julia Kuhn | CAMPUS CARRIER

The women’s swimming and diving team beat the Sewanee Tigers on Saturday for the first time in Berry’s history with a score of 181-117. Sarah Pierce broke the school record in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:16.73.

This fall season has been used as a stepping stone and learning tool for men’s and women’s swimming and diving.

The women’ s team has had some strong showing from the freshmen already this season.  Freshman swimmer Josie Hadaway broke the school record for the 200 individual medley in her first race against Centre, posting a time of 2:13.78. She was then named SAA swimmer of the week for her three first-place finishes.  

Freshman swimmer Sarah Pierce also broke a school record in the 200-yard butterfly, finishing with a time of 2:18.32.  This had been held for five years prior to Pierce breaking it. 

“We have a strong freshman class, we are a lot more dynamic across all the strokes and events,” sophomore Leigh Hadaway said.

This year’s renewed energy and momentum from the freshman class carried the women’s team to their first ever win against Sewanee on Nov. 12. 

“We have a lot of people stepping up and having some big swims early in the season,” Hadaway said. “A lot of good momentum carrying us into our training trip and the conference meet.”  

Bailey Albertson | CAMPUS CARRIER

Berry swimmer practices the breast stroke during practice on Monday. The men’s team also defeated Sewanee this weekend 162-124.

The men’s team has had a challenging season so far, losing to Centre College (116-111) and Emmanuel College earlier on, but picked up key wins against Point University (173-77), Sewanee University (162-124), and a second place finish at a tri-meet at Birmingham-Southern College.  Senior captain Joey Ellwanger leads the Men’s team this season. 

Even with small numbers on the men’s team, they are still finding a way to get things done in the pool.  

“We have a small guy’s team this year, but with the numbers we have, we still have good speed,” Ellwanger said.

The Vikings next home meet is the Viking Fall Fest Invitational on Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday 1 p.m. in the Cage Center pool.