Oct. 15, 2022 – A drama-filled opening day ended in a pair of close victories for the Loras College swimming and diving teams as the Duhawks edged the Ripon College Red Hawks at the San Jose Pool on Saturday afternoon.

Both Duhawk squads begin the season at 1-0 after the close calls as the men earned a 106-97 win while the women squeaked by for a one-point win at 95-94.

Senior Nina Schiro notched the first Loras win of the day – men's or women's – in the 200-yard freestyle race, taking the top spot with a 2:09.70 time that was nine seconds better than the second-place finisher.

The New Glarus, Wis. native was just getting started as she finished the afternoon 3-for-3 in her races as she also claimed the top spot in the 100-yard backstroke and helped lead the 200-yard freestyle relay team to a victory in the final women's race of the day.

Schiro led off the relay that also featured seniors Kinsey Bogen, Taylor Hrabak, and junior Annie Quinn as they managed a 1:48.95 time, beating the Redhawk relay team by nearly three full seconds to help claim the head-to-head victory for the team.

Quinn joined Schiro with two individual wins to go along with the relay victory as she took home the top spot in each the 50-yard (26.52) and 100-yard freestyle (59.46) races.

Junior Ellianna Stine joined Schiro and Quinn as event winners as she took first in the 100-yard fly race.

On the men's side, only freshman Caden Gillmore earned an individual race win as he claimed the top spot in the 500-yard freestyle race. Gillmore's time of 5:17.84 bested the runner-up from Ripon by 11 seconds.

The Duhawks closed out the event with a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay race, making it a Loras sweep in both and the men's and women's races for the day. Senior Charles Holmes, sophomore Austin Jorgensen, and juniors Payton Markowski and Jonathan Broas made up the relay team that earned a 5+-second victory in the final race of the day.

Junior diver James McArthur helped earned team points as well as he bested his teammate Gannon Harrington in the one-meter dive.

This is just the first of four home meets for the Duhawks this fall as the two teams get back to action next Friday, Oct. 21 when they host the Coe College Kohawks at 6 P.M.