With linked arms, wide smiles and swaying cheers, the Titans celebrated a close victory of 94 points over the Hawks at the Intramural Swim Championship with a total score of 1,046 points.

Titans’ Jon Saxton, a senior from Ames, Iowa, broke the 200 men’s Individual Medley record by 2.48 seconds with a time of 2:06.21 and the men’s backstroke by .62 seconds with a time of 57.88.

Titans’ Rachel Swift, a freshman from Las Vegas, Nev., smashed the women’s 100 backstroke record by .99 seconds setting a time of 1:06.78.

Knights’ Dan Nelson, a senior from Gig Harbor, Wash., broke his own men’s 100 breaststroke record. However, even though the Titans owned three of the four record-breaking times, their victory wasn’t an easy one. Coming out of the preliminaries on Nov. 18, only about 20 points separated all teams from the overall lead.

“The teams were so close coming into the championships, it was anybody’s game,” said Derik Taylor, athletics coordinator.

Heightened competition was attributed to talent.

“We had a better crop of swimmers. Overall there were faster times. This is the best semester we’ve ever had with talent,” said Jackie Johnson a junior from Sierra Vista, Ariz., and swimming coordinator.

Yet, talent wasn’t the only thing responsible for the fast race pace and quick finishes. Swimmers emphasized having a good attitude and dedication.

“Our team strategy was just to have fun and work hard. It definitely paid off,” said Kelli Frey, a sophomore from Arvada, Colo., and Titans team coach.