Kasey Fiedler
Contributing Writer
The College of Wooster swimming and diving team has splashed into the New Year with some stellar performances. Their conference match-up against Ohio Wesleyan ended in a victory for both the men’s (149-131) and women’s (189.5-81.5) teams.
Last weekend, the teams battled The University of Mount Union at home on Friday, Jan. 17, where the women’s team blew the Raiders out of the water, beating them in all but one event to bring their final score to 203-93. Nine different student-athletes won individual events, including and Morgan Hughes ’15, Sarah Litt ’16, Anna McGlade ’17 and Courtney McGovern ’17 who finished first twice. Despite outstanding performances by Brian Maddock ’15, Aaron Salzman ’17 and Zackary Pool ’16, the men’s team fell short at 151-147.
The next day, the Fighting Scots traveled to the C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton, Ohio and joined Defiance College and Malone University to compete in a “double dual,” which pits competitors from all three schools against each other, though it is scored as separate dual meets. The women’s team dominated yet again and came out on top against both Malone (203-71) and Defiance (236-23), while the men’s team lost to Malone (166-121) but were triumphant against Defiance (238-30).
The men and women combined to win 16 of the 32 events, but the women stood out with 13 of those victories. Individually, McGovern won the 100 backstroke (1:02.18), 200 freestyle (2:00.05) and 200 IM (2:15.54). In the 200 medley relay, she teamed with Alexandra Desotelle ’16, and Hughes as well as Mariah McGovern ’14 to take top honors finishing in 1:53.42. Hughes hit the wall first in the 100 butterfly (1:01.10) and 100 free (54.84). Theresa Spadola ’17, who swept the two diving events with scores of 152 in the one meter and 110.5 in the three meter. Rounding out the women’s top performers were winners Theresa Dunne ’17 in the 1650 free (18:56.78), Kaitlyn Fries ’15 in the 50 fly (28.39), McGlade in the 500 free (5:26.12) and Mariah McGovern in the 50 back (29.59). Two of the men’s three wins came courtesy of diver Salzman who won the one meter (170.3) and three meter (179.30) events, while Conner Gelwicks ’17 bested the field in the 1650 free in 17:38.86. The men also took second place in six events, Maddock netting two of those results in the 50 back (24.92) and 50 fly (24.62).
Maddock stated, “I believe our team’s biggest strength is our ability to feed off of each other. All we need is one person to swim a good race, and it can get our whole team going and hyped up to race.”
The Scots will host their final regular dual meet of the season on Saturday, Jan. 25 against Allegheny College. Though they recognize that the Gators could possibly be a force to reckon with, they are not doing anything different or special to prepare for the meet.
Tomorrow, the Scots will face Allegheny at home. The Scots are looking for a promising turnout on Saturday to honor their seniors.