Chicago, Ill. - The Thunder swimming and diving teams opened the 2018-19 season on Saturday afternoon with a dual meet at the University of Chicago. The Wheaton women's team lost its meet by a score of 222-71 while the Thunder men's team fell 190-90. Wheaton will be back in action on Friday, November 2, when the Thunder travel to UW-Milwaukee for another dual meet.

Wheaton won five total events with two events each being won Brooke Barnes and Chris Haase. Wheaton also claimed seven runner-up finishes.

Brooke Barnes earned impressive victories in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. Barnes finished the 50-free in 24.92 and won the 100-free in 54.31 seconds. Abby Rutledge earned two runner-up finishes, finished second in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:27.98 and second in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:14.62. Priscilla Min was second in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:11.73, narrowly holding off Sydney Grube of UChicago by .02 seconds. Min was also second in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:31.72.

Freshman Chris Haase won the one-meter and three-meter diving events. His tallied a score of 196.65 in the one-meter and 193.25 in the three-meter. Ben Griffith won the 200-yard butterfly in 1:56.87, holding off Michael Todd by half a second. Christian Cameron was a tight second place in the 50-yard free, touching the wall in 21.91 seconds, just .12 seconds behind Byrne Litschgi of UChicago. Daniel Deysher took second in the 100-yard freestyle in 49.45 seconds, .19 seconds out of first and .01 seconds ahead of third place. Logan McDaniel was second in the 1000-yard freestyle in 10:42.46 and Chris Szymczak finished second in the 200-yard backstroke in 1:58.49.