The men’s swimming and diving team won and the women’s side lost at their “code red” dual meet against Macalester, last Saturday, Nov. 23, where the team celebrated their final home meet of the season.

Before the meet, sophomore Victor Lara said he was excited for their home finale.

“I look [forward to] really great times for me and for my teammates,” Lara said. “I hope everyone could come to see and enjoy the races.”

Junior captain Hannah Hawker anticipated a competitive meet.

“It’s going to be a really close meet,” Hawker said. “The girls are hoping to get a few wins.”

The home finale began with sophomore Tyler Stanchfield, men’s distance swimmer, as he sang the national anthem. After the swimmers and divers completed their events, the team honored their seniors: T. Corbin Conliffe, Zach Lameyer and Marissa Smith.

The fans participated in the chuck-a-duck event (where they threw a rubber duck from the stands into the pool and the closest to landing it in the pool’s ring won a prize). There was also a cannon ball contest at the end.

The men’s team gave quite an impression to the recruits whom came to watch the competition by winning 12 events during the dual meet. Lara won three and both junior captain Glenn Dworsky and sophomore Conner Benson won two events.

On the women’s side, Hawker won two backstroke races and sophomore Jennie Dwyer won the 1650 freestyle.

Hawker said the team is taking huge strides early in the season.

“Everybody is actually doing really well, dropping a lot of time and having some fast swims,” Hawker said. “We still got a big chunk of the season left.”

Hawker explained head coach Ryan Hawke’s style of working with the athletes’ one on one has really helped their performance.

“He does a really, really good job with specifically working with you as an individual [as] opposed to everybody as a team, which I think is fantastic because we are all at different levels,” Hawker said. “Some of us have just started swimming and some of us have been swimming for 15 years.”

Hawker said she likes the direction the program is going.

“We kind of hit rock-bottom the past five to 10 years and we’re really building up now. It’s really exciting to see,” Hawker said.

She went on to explain her desire to see the results even after her time at Hamline is over.

“I’d like to stick around even after I graduate just to see what’s going to happen,” Hawker said. “I really think that something good is going to come from our new head coach who has done a lot of recruiting and I really think that this team is just going to keep building.”

Lara, a Brazilian native, was one of the additions to the Pipers this year.

“One of the reasons I came to the US was to swim,” he said.

Lara explained Hawke, who coached him at River Falls last year, was the reason he decided to transfer from River Falls to Hamline.

He said he’s enjoying his time at Hamline, especially with their amenities for swimming and the help of his teammates.

“All the support Hamline gave us, we’re going to have a really good season,” he said. “The atmosphere on the team is super good right now. Everyone’s pushing each other really hard to achieve each one’s individual goals and the team goals.”

First-year Maya Rapp was another new addition to the team. She has set three personal bests early in the season, had three second place finishes at the code red meet and is a qualifier for conference.

Rapp said her role with the team is completely different from high school. She grew up in the small town of Walla Walla, Washington that had a women’s swim team of over 40 girls. She said when she came to Hamline the women’s team was smaller and she quickly became one of the team members they relied on.

“It’s a big change but it’s really fun to be counted on,” Rapp said.

Hawker said one of the unique things about this year’s swimming and diving program is that everyone on the team has a role.

“We are really good about making sure everybody is part of the team…everybody is unified,” Hawker said.

Rapp said she heard from her teammates about the transformation and she’s fortunate she came at the start.

“It’s really exciting to be a part of a new program,” Rapp said. “It’s fun to be at the start of it, instead of coming into something, because we are all kind of new to it.”