While the rest of the student body crammed for tests or were already checked out and thinking of turkey and stuffing, the Spartan men and women were focused on their first tri-meet of the year.

The Spartan swimmers and divers traveled to Grove City College to compete against both Grove City and nearby Gannon University, a Division II school. While the men pulled out victories in both matches, the women were unable to match the men’s success and fell to both of the other teams.

The men led by four double-winners to defeat Grove City 217-75 and Gannon 180.5-99.5, advancing to 5-1 on the season. As a team, the Spartans won 10 events in the meet.

Connor Farrell excelled from the diving boards bringing home season high scoring dives. He won the 1-meter high dive event with 314 points and the 3-meter event with a score of 313.90. The scores improve Farrell’s regional qualifying scores. Furthermore, the showing earned Farrell the UAA Diver of the Week Award, the first of his career. Farrell is also the school record-holder in the 3-meter, 11-dive competition with a score of 506.10 at the UAA Championship back in February of 2013.

Senior Eric Haufler was among the dual victors for the Spartans, winning both the 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle races. Haufler touched the wall with times of 48.14 and 1:46.79 to beat the competition. Junior Aaron Tam followed suit, winning the 200-yard butterfly in just under 2 minutes, touching at the 1:56.05 mark, as well as the 500 free, coming in at 4:46.05.

Finally, freshman Drew Hamilton recorded his first double victory with wins in the 1,000 free and the 400 individual medley, finishing with times of 9:53.05 and 4:14.15 respectively.

Haufler and Tam also led the Spartan men in the 200 free relay; they placed first with a time of 1:26.17. The duo of Haufler and Tam were joined by fellow Spartans Elliott Kerbel and Andrew Bollinger in winning the event.

The women were unfortunately unable to pull off wins in the meet, falling to the hosts by a score of 170-127 and Gannon by a score of 189-90. The Spartans fall to 2-4 with the pair of losses.

Junior Rebecca Pakradooni was the only Spartan to leave the pool victorious as she touched the wall in the 100-yard butterfly just after the minute mark, with a time of 1:00.13. Pakradooni also swam to a second-place finish in the 200 free.

Despite a lack of first-place finishes, freshmen Brooke Hortness and Ellie Wilson came up just short, placing second in their events. Hortness placed second in both dives, with scores of 213.15 and 195.60 from the 1-meter and 3-meter boards while Wilson touched the wall second in the 100-yard breaststroke.

The Spartans returned to competition on Thursday after The Observer went to print. However, they are competing in the Wooster Invitational, a three-day competition spanning from Thursday to Saturday. The Spartans will be looking to continue their four-year winning streak.