Wisconsin Downs Hawaii

HONOLULU, Hawaii, January 4. DESPITE a one-month break from competition, the University of Wisconsin men's and women's swimming teams looked sharp Thursday, winning 15 of 26 swimming events en route to defeating Hawaii at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex. Diving excluded, the UW men's team (4-2) lead the Warriors 127-75, while the 18th-ranked women's team (5-1) lead the Wahine 141-63.

"We had some rust, but all in all I thought we swam really well," head coach Eric Hansen said. "In fact, the team was happy to be racing again. It was sort of a ‘reward' for them to race after all the training they have done."

The Badgers are in Hawaii for their annual two-week training trip. Though diving will not take place until Friday, Wisconsin has already secured the victories by putting the meet out of reach for UH.

Helping UW to such a resounding triumph was Yi Ting Siow, who won the 200-yard breaststroke by reeling off an NCAA "A" cut of 2:12.97. She also won the 200-yard IM (2:02.75, NCAA "B" time) and led the 400-yard medley relay team to victory (3:48.75).

Susan Johnson also was on that relay team in addition to helping her 400-yard freestyle relay team take second place (3:29.80). In her individual event, Johnson captured the title in the 200-yard backstroke (1:59.33, NCAA "B" time).

"Yi Ting and Susan really stepped up," Hansen said. "Their NCAA ‘A' and ‘B' cuts were especially impressive at this time of year during the middle of training."

Scott Rice had a great day as well, winning the 200-yard IM (1:54.33) and the 200-yard butterfly (1:51.10), and he was a part of the first-place 400-yard medley relay team (3:25.68).

"Our men's team was great," Hansen said, "but Scott Rice in particular swam really well for us."

Also earning victories for UW were Taylor Mathis in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:42.41), Mike Desautels in the 100-yard freestyle (46.16), Mike Hopkins in the 200-yard backstroke (1:50.72), Tom Molzahn in the 500-yard freestyle (4:37.93) and Gabby Maddalena in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:05.91).

[Though Notre Dame's women's team also competed, Wisconsin only faced Hawaii in the meet. Thus in the results, if ND won an event but UW finished higher than UH, it technically was a Badger victory over Hawaii.]

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