Julie Kendall
Sports Editor
The College of Wooster’s men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams both narrowly lost to Wittenberg University on Saturday in their first duel matchups of the season. The men scored just 16 points behind the Tigers (126.5-110.5), while the women lost by a mere 22-point deficit (126-104).
The highlight of the meet for the Scots was a record-breaking performance by Brian Maddock ’15 in the 100 backstroke. His first-place time of 53.22 was the fastest for that event ever recorded in the College’s Timken Natatorium. Maddock earned two other wins, beginning with the 200 IM (2:02.45). He was also member of the 200 medley relay, which also included Alex LaJoie ’13, Evan Hagedorn ’15 and Frayne Poeting ’16. LaJoie finished second to Maddock in the 100 backstroke, with a time of 54.63.
Freestyle sprinter Imre Namath ’13 took first place in his two individual events, decisively winning the 50 free (22.25), before tying with Wittenberg’s J.B. Easley in the 100 free (49.58). Namath contributed to an additional victory as part of the 200-yard freestyle relay, which included Poeting, LaJoie and Peter Parisi ’13.
Parisi, swimming in the anchor position for that event, recorded the fastest team split at 21.90. He was also an individual winner for the Scots in the 100 butterfly (53.27), and earned a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Morgan Hughes ’15 starred in the women’s competition with two first-place individual freestyle performances in 50 free (24.89) and the 100 free (54.16). Hughes also swam the fastest team split in the women’s 200 freestyle relay (24.56), helping to rocket the relay team of Kate Hunt ’13, Mariah McGovern ’14 and Clare Walsh ’13 to victory.
Hunt had two individual victories, in the 200 freestyle (2:00.00) and the 100 fly (59.45).
Other exceptional performances for the lady Scots came from the 200 medley relay team of Samira El-Adaway ’13, Rachel Appleton ’14, Molly Laubernds ’16 and Alex Desotelle ’16, which placed second. El-Adaway took second in the 200 IM (2:17.16) and in the 100 backstroke (1:03.48).
Diving for the Scots was Acacia Cordova ’16 and Kanika Isaar ’15, who took second and third place, respectively, in the women’s 1m dive with scores of 108.70 and 84.55. Bryan Smith came in third place in both the men’s 1m dive with a score of 134.00, and the 3 meter dive with 116.4 points.
Up next for the Scots is the Cleveland City Tournament, which takes place tonight and tomorrow at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio.