Georgetown traveled to South Orange, N.J., this weekend and saw the fruits of its fall-season labor.

The Hoyas raced against Seton Hall, Loyola (Md.) and Lafayette. The men earned their first win of the season against Lafayette, 151-140, and the women beat Loyola 159.5-139.5. Winning meets, however, was not the only goal.

“Every meet we go in to, we try to win the meet,” Head Coach Steven Cartwright said. “There is a huge team component but, within that meet, you have individuals going after their best times, Big East times, ECAC times.”

Five more Hoyas qualified for the Big East tournament, upping the total number of qualifications to 38 so far this year. According to Cartwright, the team only had five qualifiers at this point last season.

Sophomore Laura Stark qualified in the 200-yard breaststroke and took second in the event and senior Caitlin Colling qualified for the ECAC and Big East championships in the 100yd freestyle.

While the teams are still winless in the Big East and are a combined 2-11, Cartwright is confident they will be prepared when the meat of the season hits during the winter.

“The only way you can be the best is to swim against the best,” he said. “By swimming teams that are faster than you, you become faster.”

Swimming against faster, tougher teams now will prepare Georgetown for later in the season, according to Cartwright.

“We’ll get faster now and see them again in February.”

Cartwright said that the team had not had a significant rest since training started at the beginning of the season, and he expects the team to perform better than it ever has at the Patriot Invite on Nov. 16.

“As we’re swimming right now, we’re still swimming really fast every day, but we’re still swimming really tired. We’re in the water three days a week.” he said. “I’m expecting some fast swimming.”