The Butler swim team defeated Valparaiso 103-89 on Saturday afternoon.

“I think the meet went pretty well, we finished the meet stronger than we have in the past,” freshman Allie Dvorchak said.

“I was impressed on how our ladies performed with getting the win,” coach Maurice Stewart said.

Stewart was especially impressed with how the team fought back after a 16 point deficit going into the second half of the meet.

“This was the first time in a while that we did much better and raced much better as the meet went on,” Stewart said. “This meet, they started out fairly strong, but got much better as the meet went on.”

The 200 yard medley relay of junior Lauren Lambrecht, sophomore Lauren Scotti, freshman Amanda Wagner, and freshman Serena Daley placed third (1:57:23) to open the meet.

Scotti had a strong meet, finishing third (26:50) in the 50 yard freestyle and first (2:14:15) in the 200 backstroke.

Sophomore Caitlin Weichelt placed second (2:04:06) in the 200 freestyle and second (5:26:64) in the 500 freestyle.

Lambrecht said how the team was able to finish out their races strong, in particular, Weichelt in the 500 yard freestyle.

“She was probably a couple of body lengths behind going into the end of her race and she just really kicked it in and really finished well,” Lambrecht said. “[Weichelt] actually ended up beating one of the girls that she was behind and almost caught up to the other one that won.”

Stewart lauded the efforts of Weichelt after the meet.

“Despite being out of the water for two weeks due to illness, she had an outstanding performance in both the 200 and 500 free,” Stewart said.

“To come back to anchor our 200 free relay at the end to win the meet was outstanding and I definitely want to highlight her performance,” Stewart said.

Other top three finishes include junior Rosalie Fidanze and Wagner who each placed second (2:34:28) and third (2:36:67), respectively in the 200 breaststroke.

Sophomore Megan Boebinger placed first (2:17:18) and Lambrecht placed third (2:24:50) in the 200 butterfly.

Freshmen Elizabeth Miller and Sarah Gibbons placed second (11:18:04) and third (11:24:09), respectively in the 1000 yard freestyle.

Butler closed out the meet with a second place finish (1:45:50) in the 200 freestyle relay. The relay included Daley, Wagner, Weichelt and freshman Emma Green.

Stewart also praised Wagner and Scotti for their efforts in the meet.

Next up for the Bulldogs is the Atlantic 10 Conference Championships, which will be on February 20-23 in Geneva, Ohio.

Lambrecht said the A-10 Conference Championships are going to be an interesting experience.

“There’s a very good number of girls on the team that have a very good chance, if they swim lights out, they have a very good chance of making it back to finals,” Lambrecht said.

“A-10 raises the competition immensely,” Dvorchak said. “I think we just need to go into it with the right mentality and try and perform as strongly as a team as we can.”

“It’s going to be the first time that we’ve been exposed to all the A-10 teams,” Stewart said. “I think we need to keep our heads high and go in with confidence [and] have that be the best meet of the season.”

“It’s going to be difficult to really tell how competitive we’re actually going to be against these other A-10 teams,” Stewart said.