ST. LOUIS, MO - After defeating teams one at a time in the first two (dual) meets of the season, both the men's and women's swimming & diving teams finished ahead of four of the other five schools in attendance at the Washington University Invitational on Friday and Saturday (November 17-18th).

Washington University was the convincing team champion in the women's division with 962 points. The Foresters were next with 549, followed by Ohio Wesleyan University (505), Lindenwood University (450), Carthage College (414) and the University of Chicago (215).

Junior Jie Li (Gurnee, IL) was the top contributor to the women's point total. Li finished first in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke, 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard individual medley as well as helping the 400-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley relays to second and third-place finishes, respectively. Her school record time of 58.64 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke automatically qualified her to swim in the NCAA Division III championship meet in March and is the fastest time in the country so far this season. The 2:09.00 she swam in the 200-yard backstroke was a solid "B-cut" but missed the automatic qualifying time by just over a second.

The Foresters' other event winners were junior Randi Estes (LaBelle, FL), whose time of 5:22.64 in the 500-yard freestyle was the best at the meet, and sophomore Erin Motzer (Libertyville, IL), whose 2:20.90 was good for first in the 200-yard butterfly. If not for the performance of Li in both backstroke events, the runner-up in those races, senior Karie Schuenke (Quincy, IL) would have left with two first-place swims to go with her third-place finish in the 400-yard individual medley.

In the men's division, Washington University was also the top team at the meet with 1,205 points. Following the Foresters' 492 was Ohio Wesleyan (447), Carthage College (328), Lindenwood University (273.5) and (270.5).

Freshman Joe Isaacs (Shorewood, MN) finished third in the 100-yard freestyle in 50.35 seconds and fourth in the 100-yard butterfly in 55.86. He also swam a leg on the third-place 400-yard medley (3:52.38) and 400-yard freestyle (3:28.12) relays. Another freshman, Brady Lowdermilk (Parker, CO), teamed with Isaacs on the medley relay and also finished second in the 200-yard backstroke (2:04.16) and fourth in the 100-yard backstroke (57.63). Senior Steve Williams (Leawood, KS) was also on the 400-yard medley relay and placed third in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:27.37) and fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.22).

After taking Thanksgiving weekend off, the Foresters will compete in the Wheaton Invitational on December 1st and 2nd. The team's final meet of the fall semester will be on Saturday, December 9th when they host both Carroll College and the Illinois Institute of Technology.