The No. 4 Arizona women’s and No. 5 men’s swimming and diving teams were victorious in their first dual meet on Friday at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center, as the women (1-0) defeated No. 13 Wisconsin (3-1) 158.5-132.5 and the men (2-0 beat the Badgers (3-1) 165-111 and UC Santa Barbara (1-3) 155-134.

UA head coach Frank Busch, in his 19th year, said the teams were in the meet whole-heartedly, but he said he wasn’t taken aback by any individual performance.

“”There wasn’t anybody that really surprised me because I’ve been watching them practice now for a couple of months,”” he said. “”I’ve seen things that I think I know they can do.””

For the women, junior co-captain Lacey Nymyer posted the most victories – all in freestyle events – winning the 100-, 200-, and 500-yard events.

Pleased with her performance, Nymyer said that winning her specialty events is “”always a plus.””

Kicking off the meet, the women, including sophomores Lara Jackson and Lindsey Kelly along with freshmen Caitlin Iversen and Annie Chandler, began with a win in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:42.73.

Kelly also came in first place in the 50-yard freestyle event.

Iverson and Chandler saw success in the meet as Iverson won in both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events, while Chandler posted a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke after losing a close battle with Badger Yi Ting Siow.

Fellow newcomers also streamed together promising events.

“”It’s interesting to watch the freshmen go for the first time, and I think they did a good job,”” Busch said. “”They didn’t feel intimidated.””

Ana Agy had her first collegiate win in the 100-yard butterfly after taking second behind senior and co-captain Whitney Myers in the 200-yard butterfly event.

Fellow freshman Joni Zimmerman finished second in the 1000-yard freestyle, the longest event of the meet, in a tight finish with Gabby Maddalena of Wisconsin.

Andrea Boritzke also had an encouraging third-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke.

“”I think we’re still a little rough around the edges,”” Nymyer said. “”But we raced hard, and we really came together as a team and really supported each other.””

In the first dual meet of the season, senior co-captain Adam Ritter posted two individual wins in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle events.

“”It was exiting just to get back in the water and compete,”” said Ritter, an All-American.

Junior teammate Matt Biel saw similar success as he had two freestyle victories in the 500- and 1000-yard events.

In the first event of the afternoon, the relay team of juniors Darian Townsend, Ivan Barnes and Albert Subirats with sophomore Nicolas Nilo won the 200-yard medley relay with the time of 1:30.40.

Although the returning swimmers performed well, Ritter said there are still questions about newcomers to the team that have not been answered.

“”There’s a lot of unknowns coming into the meet,”” he said. “”We kind of had an idea about what we wanted to do, but we used this meet to feel out what we had here as a team.””

Also victorious for the Wildcats were Townsend in the 100-yard backstroke, along with Subirats, who won the 50-yard freestyle.

After the meet, Ritter said he was happy with the team’s performance that gave him a glimpse of what is to come in the following weeks.

“”Last year we knew that we were going to have something at the end of the year for sure, but this year, it’s just shaping up along the way,”” he said.

For the men’s diving team, junior Matt Bisordi had victories in both the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events, while teammate and junior Craig Sheedy had a third place finish in the 1-meter competition.

On the women’s side, senior Megan MacDonald won the 3-meter, after taking second place in the 1-meter behind Wisconsin’s Jenny Hawkins.

Fellow senior Holly Kast took third place behind MacDonald in the 1-meter event.