Valpo swimming opens home slate with strong weekend

SWIM: Unruh with impressive home debut as women's squad shines with three team victories

VALPARAISO - Anthony Martin and Sara Strauss know all too well that collegiate swimming can be a sport experienced through isolation.

The pair of Valparaiso swimmers, much like their teammates, are often swimming against their own goals and their own internal stopwatches whenever they jump in the water.

That can be a lonely feeling. But when that moment hits after the final turn and there’s an opponent in the next lane going stride for stride, the goals and the clocks go out the window and it’s just a race to the finish line.

Martin and Strauss both won that race on Friday night as Valparaiso opened the 2024-25 home schedule with a series of meets against Quincy and Illinois Tech. The men’s and women’s programs were back at the Valparaiso Aquatic Center on Saturday for meets against Eastern Illinois and Bellarmine.