ELKHART — It was a solid team effort for the Wawasee girls swim team Tuesday night. That might sound cliché, but every class had at least one swimmer with a big night, from the seniors down to the freshmen. The Warriors had some bad starts, some close calls with lane lines and had to fight through the feel of “slimy” water, but ultimately Wawasee walked away with a 110-73 victory over Elkhart Memorial.

The visiting team had great support from top to bottom to win 10 of 12 events. It started at Concord High School, because why not?

The diving portion of Tuesday night’s meet took place at Concord where Wawasee faced its most dangerous opponent, itself. Memorial did not have any divers, leaving the Warriors to dive by themselves…at a different school. Though the setting was surely unique, Wawasee picked up some easy point by sweeping the event. Hannah Rhoades led the way with a score of 157.90. Rachel Starrett (125.95) and Riley Kunkle (117.85) took second and third, respectively.

With diving points firmly in hand, the rest of the night should have been smooth as silk, but ended up being slippery and annoying for many of the swimmers. A pair of photographers using their flashes had several swimmers pestered as they were blinded on a few of their turns, making it difficult to see the wall. Adding to the annoyance of the meet was the alleged saltiness of the water in the pool. Madi McBride, a Wawasee junior, defined the water at one point as “slimy.”

Was McBride’s opinion speaking for the entire team? Probably not, but the rest of the swimmers were far from pleased with the experience at Memorial’s pool, though it didn’t effect the results much.

McBride herself turned in two third place finishes and helped to get Wawasee two relay wins. The junior took third in the 100 free (1:01.82) and 100 breast (1:20.67). Senior Kayla Hershbeger won the 100 free (58.19) for Wawasee while Shelby Adams (1:15.30) took top honors in the 100 breast.

Hershberger and McBride joined with Alyssa Koch and Lizzie Brugh to win the 200 free relay with a time of 1:55.52. Mikala Mawhorter, McBride, Adams and Paige Miller took the top spot in the 400 free relay with their collective time of 4:01.80.

Wawasee swept the relays for the night thanks to starting its night with a win in the 200 medley. The team of Hershberger, Adams, Mawhorter and Miller swam a 2:00.60 to get things going early for the visiting team.

The win in the medley relay was followed by a first place time of 2:07.00 in the 200 free from Adams. Miller continued the hot start for the team by winning the 200 IM (2:13.16). Memorial won the 50 free and 100 fly back-to-back before watching Wawasee win the remaining events.

Miller won the 500 free with ease, clocking in at 5:08.18. The other event won by Wawasee Tuesday evening was the 100 back as Hershberger (1:06.43) came in ahead of Koch (1:10.51) for the top spot.

Catching the eye of head coach Julie Robinson was the performance of her younger swimmers.

“Zoe (White) had a great 200 free,” began Robinson. “Zoe also had a fantastic 500 free, as well as Tessa (Freel). Tessa dropped eight seconds off of the time that she swam at Warsaw and that was Zoe’s first 500. It’s just a nice thing to see some young girls coming in and dropping times.

“I think, as a whole, they did well. You know, considering the pool and the conditions and coming off of the Warsaw meet. I was really pleased with how they did today.”

Wawasee (3-0, 2-0) will swim at Concord next Tuesday.