Georgia Southern University’s swimming and diving team picked up a win this Saturday at the first meet of the season against the College of Charleston Cougars, 179-118.

GSU dominated the Cougars throughout the entire meet, winning first place in 11 out of a possible 16 events.

“I think what we’ve done these last eight weeks has set the tone in terms of team building, team chemistry, setting expectations for the attitude and work ethic,” head coach Nathan Kellogg said.

The Eagles started off showing their excellent team chemistry winning the first event of the meet, the 200-yard medley relay, with a time of 1:47.49.

The Eagles followed up their first event by taking 1^st place in four of the next six subsequent events.

Junior Sara Meisenhelder took first place in the one-meter diving event, recording a score of 251.32.

“I am very satisfied with today’s win. I could have done better on some dives, but for the most part I think we did a good job,” Meisenhelder said.

The Eagles took an even bigger lead when they swept the top three places in the 200-yard breaststroke. Juniors Courtney Harrison and Megan Ostrom along with sophomore Allyn Case finished first, second and third respectively.

GSU event participants garnered a lot of support from the home crowd as well as their teammates during every event. The crowd plays a huge factor, and they motivate her to do well, Meisenhelder said.

“I expect all of us to do really well. We brought in a lot of good freshmen, and we’re all meshing really well together. I see us going really fast and having a really good end to the season this year,” junior Kristen Bates said.

Bates placed first in the 100-yard breaststroke, recording a time of 1:05.10.

The Eagles performed well in their first meet of the season, but their work is not done yet. Kellogg is proud of his team, but he wants to improve in some areas if they are going to reach their target goals.

“We want to be top three in every relay at the conference meet, and we’d like to improve one place at the conference games,” Kellogg said.

The Eagles have their work cut out for them this season, but they plan on reaching their goals collectively and individually with a strong work ethic and supporting each other.

The next swimming and diving team meet is Saturday against the Savannah College of Art and Design at noon in the Recreation Activity Center.