Angad Singh
Sports Editor
The College of Wooster Fighting Scots swimming teams participated in their last home meet of the season. The Scots put up a strong performance on the board with the men’s team beating Ohio Wesleyan 177- 107 while being held by the Allegheny Gators and the women put up a strong performance too by outscoring Ohio Wesleyan 215.5-63.5. The women’s team held a 21 dual meet winning streak which was broken by the Allegheny Gators who beat the team 163-131.
The women put up a strong performance, with the 200 medley team of Hannah Langer ’21, Molly Likins ’22, Anne Bowers ’21 and Lexi RileyDiPaolo ‘21 winning the 200 meter medley relay. Likins went on to win the 100 breaststroke with Madison Whitman ’21 coming in second. Whitman went on a winning spree taking home the 200 breaststroke, along with the 400 individual medley (IM). The Scots went on to finish first and second in the 100 and 500 freestyle races with Nell Kacmarek ’20 winning the two events in 11:04.49 and 5:26.46 respectively. Teammate Kay Wetmore ’23 swam an 11:06.23 and 5:27.48 to come second in both the races.
The men set themselves up for a strong performance too, with the team of Josh Gluck ’20, Noah Golovan ’23, Noah Fox ’23 and Jim Shanahan ’21 finishing second in their 200-meter medley relay with a time of 1:40.39. Gluck came up first in the 100 backstrokes with a time of 53.26, followed by teammates Graham Letkeman ’22 and Eli Samuelson ’20 finishing second and third. Gluck continued their winning streak by winning the 200-meter backstroke and coming second in the 400 IM.
Trey Schopen ’20 won the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 2:01.33, a whole two seconds ahead of the second swimmer. He also won the 100 butterfly, following a second place finish in the 100 free with a time of 50.36.
The meet also served as Senior Night. When asked how competing in her final home meet felt, Sara Fikse ’20 stated, “my last home swim seemed to encapsulate my entire swimming career— gruelingly long and rather painful. Our coaches asked a lot of the team, with some of us swimming four and even five events.” She continued, “Yet, underneath it all was the same spirit that I’ve been relentlessly chasing for four years — there was laughter and tenderness, a little nostalgia and a lot of pride. It was a fitting ending but it is not the end. I am looking forward to finishing our season strong.” Going off of what Fikse stated, Schopen said, “It still hasn’t fully set in that it was my last home meet. It was definitely a bittersweet moment still. I absolutely adore the team and have made some of the greatest friends I could have ever asked for, so even knowing we’ll all stay in touch, it’s going to be hard to say goodbye to everyone.”
On being asked what advice he would leave for his teammates, Schopen said, “The best advice I could give is to make sure you really enjoy your time here because even though it may feel like its dragging on at times, these four years go by faster than I could have expected.” Teammate Eli Samuelson ’20 continued, “It’s been an honor swimming with not only great athletes but also students. For my team, we are one of the best if not the best DIII swim confer