The swimming and diving teams started their competition for the year over Fall Break with their first meet against archrival Carnegie Mellon University.

It was sadly a slow start for both the men and women’s squad as the two teams lost to the Tartans. The women lost by a 183-115 point total and the men came with a 187-105 loss.

The Spartans were led by junior Rebecca Pakradooni and by newcomer freshman Mary Katherine Miller. The pair each won two events each, providing high notes for the Spartans in the loss to the Tartans.

Pakradooni won both of her individual races by placing first in the 200-yard freestyle with an impressive 1:59.67 time and climbing out of the pool victorious after the 100 butterfly with a time just under the one minute mark, finishing with a time of 59.32.

Miller started off her college career with an excellent pair of first-place finishes in the 200 fly and 200 breaststroke. Miller beat out the field with times of 2:10.46 in the fly and of 2:34.50 in the breaststroke.

Another freshman, Inez Moore, picked up her first win in her first collegiate event winning the 50 freestyle race with a time of 25.24.

From the springboard and into the pool for the Case Western men’s team, junior Connor Farrell gave the Spartans their best performance on the day winning both diving events, the one meter and the three meter events. Farrell posted NCAA regional qualifying scores of 291.25 and 291.75 in the two events respectively, with excellent dives.

Freshman Aaron Pang and senior Elliott Kerbel added wins for the Spartans from the starting blocks. Pang picked up his first collegiate victory with a time of 4:11.85 in the 400 yard individual medley. Kerbel won the 50-meter freestyle making it to the opposite wall and back in only 21.94 seconds.

Kerbel followed up that effort with a key hand in the Spartans final victory of the day, a first place finish in the 200 free relay. Kerbel was joined by his teammates, juniors Aaron Tam and Alec David and senior co-captain Eric Haufler in posting an excellent 1:27.44 time to win the relay.

Both squads will return to the pool on Saturday Nov. 1 versus John Carroll University at Veale Natatorium. The meet will start at 1 p.m.