While many students headed out of town to relax over the long weekend, the swim team headed north to take care of business at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. Emily Mosbacher’s squad had several solid performances in an Oct. 21 quad-meet against Mills, College of Idaho and California State University East Bay. The Eagles did more of the same at the Bay Area Invitational on Oct. 22, also at Mills.

Tixier leads the way

Junior Lisa Tixier continued her excellent start to the season, adding three more times to her resume that made the cut for National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics national championships in the spring. Tixier swam the 200-yard individual medley in 2:09.26 and the 100-yard freestyle in 53.55 on the first day, winning both races. Her third qualifier came in the 400-yard individual medley on the second day, where she finished second at 4:40.63. Tixier combined with sophomore Jenny London and freshmen Emily Silzel and Rachel Stinchcomb to win the 200-yard medley relay on day one with a time of 1:54.81.

Freshman Bethany Harper and junior Sophia Dammann also qualified for nationals during their time in Oakland. Harper made the cut with a 2:02.18 time in the 200-yard freestyle, good for a fourth-place finish. Dammann finished six spots behind Tixier in the same 400-yard individual medley, but still earned a spot in nationals with a 4:54.81 finish.

The men’s relay teams shone at Mills with a win in their own 200-yard medley to sweep that event for the Eagles on the first day. They also turned in a great showing in the men’s 800-yard freestyle relay on day two, as their time of 7:21.50 came a close second to the team from powerhouse UC Santa Cruz.

Freshman Phenom

Individually, freshman Raymond Kam turned in the best performance of his young collegiate career. Kam pulled upsets in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke during the invitational, winning both races with times of 1:00.50 and 2:12.58, respectively. He also finished second in the 100-yard butterfly and was a part of the relay group that won the 200-yard medley as well as one that wound up second in the 400-yard freestyle on the second day.

Despite the impressive display, Kam did not feel satisfied.

“I expect a lot more from myself,” Kam said. “The times that I swam were really close to making national cuts. They were literally tenths of a second from making the cuts and that is aggravating.”

Kam did express pride in his team’s overall showing.

“[We] did a decent job of performing,” Kam said. “However, our mentality should be stronger and we should be more confident in ourselves because, after all, we have all been working hard.”