Chicago, Illinois - This weekend, 16 swimmers and 2 divers will be travelling to the University of Chicago to compete in the D3 Shootout. In this meet, Trinity University will compete against Wash U, Pomona Pitzer, SUNY Geneseo, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Washington and Lee, Hope College, Swarthmore College, University of Wisconsin, and of course the University of Chicago themselves. This meet consists of nearly a full conference lineup, with stringent rules as to how many swimmers and divers can compete. Thus, coaches must make tactical decisions as to who they take and which events to put each swimmer in so that they score as competitively as possible.
 
Preview- D3 Shootout
 
The team this year at the D3 shootout consists of Trinity's three athletes of the week following their meet against UTPB. Ava Easley (Allen, Texas / Lovejoy), a freshman on the team, was chosen as the women's swimmer of the week last week. She won both the 100 butterfly and the 50 freestyle last week. In the 50 freestyle, she just edged out her teammate and fellow freshman, Kaya Alvegaard-Struble (Kansas City, Mo. / Pembroke Hill), who will also be competing in Chicago this weekend. Following Easley in the 100 butterfly were Sophia Mandanis (Wichita, Kan. / Andover), Amy Benson (Newmarket, N.H. / Phillips Exeter Academy), and Emme Penry (Greenwood Village, Colo. / Regis Jesuit), all three of which were also selected for the Chicago roster. Although none of these three typically swim this event, it goes to show their versatile swimming abilities. Easley also put up a program top 10 time in her relay-leading 100 backstroke, with a time of 58.40, a wildly impressive time, especially for a dual meet.
 
The divers of the week were Juliet Hood (Wexford, Pa. / North Allegheny) and Max Rolla-Mullis (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Pioneer), and both will be diving at Chicago. This will be the Trinity divers' first time competing against another team, as UTPB sadly did not have divers attend last weekend. However, the team has been diligently training and competing against one another, so it will be thrilling to watch them go up against other divers!
 
Although no Trinity men won swimmer of the week this week, many of the men going to Chicago still put up some incredible performances. Theodore Ho (Sugar Land, Texas / Clements) swam a time of 9:55.13 in the 1000 freestyle, which is the 8th best time in program history. Jack Hester (Round Rock, Texas / Cedar Ridge) additionally got the 8th best time ever swam at Trinity with his 100 backstroke, which he swam with a time of 51.64. Daniel Apostol (Billings, Mont. / Central Catholic) came in 7th in program history with a 57.56 100 breaststroke. These are some unprecedentedly fast times for dual meets, so it will be exciting to see how these three speedy freshmen compete this weekend!
 
Other swimmers chosen for this meet are Allison Ortiz (Houston, Texas / Stratford), Neely Burns (Phoenix, Ariz. / Thunderbird), and Kaitlyn Phan (Austin, Texas / Westlake) on the women's side, and Nate Perez (Alpharetta, Ga. / Johns Creek), John Key (El Paso, Texas / Franklin), William Walker (Houston, Texas / Westside), Grant Bibza (Southlake, Texas / Carroll), and Luke Fender (Jackson, Miss. / St. Andrew's Episcopal) for the men. Let's keep an eye out for some more impressive times from these swimmers at Chicago!
Coming off of their win against DII UTPB the rest of the women's and men's team is traveling to Geneseo, New York to face off SUNY Geneseo and Rochester Institute of Technology for a tri-meet on November 8th at 9am EST. 
 
Preview- SUNY Geneseo, RIT Meet
 
For this tri-meet, we've got some exciting competition from our Tigers up in New York! For the women's team, RIT's top ranked women's swimmers, Anna Beahan, a freestyle sprinter and 200 IMer and Meghan Black a freestyler, serve as some good competition for the Tigers! Tiger swimmers Lindsay McKinney (Victoria, Texas / Saint Joseph), Erica Peterson (Lantana, Texas / Guyer), Anna Stouffer (St. Louis, Mo. / Clayton), and Jules Wiehrdt (Waco, Texas / Midway) could potentially face them this weekend showing out for some awesome fast races! From SUNY Geneseo, one of their top swimmers is a distance freestyler, posing as some good competition for Audrey Jacobson (Dallas, Texas / School for the Talent and Gifted), Erin Morie (St. Louis, Mo. / Cor Jesu Academy), Diane Park (Beaverton, Ore. / Mountainside), and Renee Trombley (Fort Collins, Colo. / Fossil Ridge) who are the Tigers' top distance swimmers! For the men's team SUNY Geneseo's top ranked swimmers are Antonio Vavalle, a 200 and 500 freestyler, and Duncan Smith who will pose as some great competition for Jason Allen (Springfield, Mo. / Springfield), Sean Easley (Allen, Texas / Lovejoy), Chase Hays (Austin, Texas / Anderson), Nickolas Rotolo (Houston, Texas / Houston Christian), and Trace Briones (San Antonio, Texas / Health Careers). From RIT, Griffin Messenlehner, a Griffin Tomsheck, a breastroker and IMer, we could see some really great racing from him along with Caleb Del Rosario (Sudbury, Mass. / Lincoln-Sudbury), Owen Flynn (Guthrie, Okla. / Heritage Hall), Nathan Lumsdaine (Brentwood, Tenn. / Brentwood Academy), and Ryan O'Leary (Austin, Texas / Austin) as they are some of the Tigers' top IMers! Let's cheer these Tigers on from home and watch for some great swimming up in New York! 
 
Looking Forward

In two weeks the Tigers are set to host their annual mid-season meet Tiger Invite! They host a bunch of different schools on November 21-23 at the Alamo Heights Natatorium. It is a three day meet held here in San Antonio so there are plenty of opportunities to show up and cheer the Tigers on as they hope to win another invite meet!