Walking into the aquatic center on Saturday, Nov. 11 to watch the men and women’s swimming and diving team perform against University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the excitement could be felt immediately.

The team was ecstatic to just be in the water. Parents sitting in the stands were more than thrilled to be cheering on both the men’s and women’s programs as a whole.

The support the men’s and women’s teams had one for another was a significant factor in their performance on Saturday as the Hawks secured the victory for the men 229-69 and for the women 217-68.

The positivity was overflowing, evidenced by the constant cheering on of their teammates. The team’s desire for success creates a positive atmosphere and shows everybody around them how passionate they are about the sport, as well as, how competitive it can be.

There were fourteen total events in the meet Saturday. The first event was the men’s and women’s 400-yard medley. The Hawks took the victory for the men and women in the event. The women with a time of 4:12.90 and the men with a time of 3:40.89.

The Hawks continued to rack points in the 1000-yard freestyle as junior Gabrielle Pielka and freshman Hunter Wronski took first place with times of 11:24.31 and 10:14.76, respectively. In the 200-yard freestyle, the Hawks swept with senior captain Shantelle Richards and freshman Meg Peters taking the lead, as well as, sophomore John Babuka, senior captain Paul Marchese and sophomore Jeremy Penny placing in that order.

The 50-yard backstroke and breaststroke were just as promising when RWU gained an additional 60 points across the two events. The rest of the swimming events brought great success for RWU.

The men were able to take first in both diving events, but the women came up just short of a clean sweep.

As much as swimming and diving can be considered an individual sport, according to the senior captain Marchese, that is incorrect.

“Teams sport some may think that it is only one person racing but the only way to get better is by competing against one another,” he said.

This sport is about encouraging one another and being there to push them to limits that they didn’t know that they could go. There is a passion behind this sport that is needed in order for them to be successful and the swim teams showed that well in their performance on Saturday.