Ben Blotner
Contributing Writer
The College of Wooster swimming and diving teams were both victorious on Saturday. In the final dual meet of the season before the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Championships, the men’s and women’s teams were each able to defeat Baldwin Wallace University on the road. Two impressive swimmers, Josh Gluck ’21 and Madison Whitman ’21, even made history along the way.
In the first event, the 200-yard medley relay, the women got off to a strong start with a win. Each school had an “A,” “B” and “C” team compete in each event, and Wooster’s A group of Hannah Langer ’21, Molly Likins ’22, Heidi Likins ’21 and Lexi Riley-DiPaolo ’21 finished first to start the day. The men’s A team did not finish first in this event, but the three Wooster teams placed second through fourth.
After the women’s team won the first event and the men came up short, the reverse was true for the next competition, the 1000-yard freestyle. In this individual event, Craig Klumpp ’21 was the top male swimmer and Robby Beal ’22 was second overall. The 200-yard freestyle saw more success for the women, as Wooster swimmers Nell Kacmarek ’20, Avery Pearson ’20 and Sarah Stutler ’20 achieved the top three times in the event. Meanwhile, Baldwin Wallace’s men were able to best the Scots by posting two of the top three times.
The women stayed hot in the 100-yard backstroke, with Langer, Kate Murphy ’21 and Paige Sogandares ’21 all earning the top spots. Gluck helped lead the men to their own victory here, finishing first as his teammates took third and fourth. Whitman finished well ahead of the other competitors in the women’s 100-yard breaststroke, leading the team to victory. In the same event, the men earned three of the top four spots, again led by Klumpp.
Both teams came up short of first place in the 200-yard butterfly, despite having Anne Bowers ’21 and Noah Golovan ’23 finish second for the women and men, respectively. Each side would get back into the win column in the 50-yard freestyle, with Molly Likins and Jim Shanahan ’21 taking the top spots.
In the one-meter diving event, Lucie Redmann ’23, Wooster’s lone female diving representative, finished first out of three competitors. The men did not fare as well, but Nick Rabaut ’23 did place second out of four divers. A second round of one-meter diving was held later in the day, in which Redmann was the only female competitor and Eric Jacques ’22 finished second for the men.
While Baldwin Wallace got the best of the men in the 100-yard freestyle, Riley-DiPaolo was again a standout for the women as she took the top spot. The 200-yard backstroke event featured strong performances from Mia Chen ’22 and Gluck, who both won by sizable margins to lead their teams. Whitman then proceeded to dominate the 200- yard breaststroke for the women, finishing with the top time by over 12 seconds. Gluck and Whitman each broke records for their respective events, racing to the fastest times ever in Baldwin Wallace Natatorium for their competitions.
The men did not have a first-place finisher in the 200-yard breaststroke, and neither Wooster team came out on top in the 500-yard freestyle. This trend continued into the 100-yard butterfly, in which Baldwin Wallace had the top two competitors on each side. However, Whitman and Gluck were able to turn things around by continuing their excellence in the 200-yard individual medley, as the two star swimmers each finished first once again.
In the final event of the day, the 200-yard freestyle relay, both the male and female Scots were able to put together winning relay groups. For the women, it was Riley-DiPaolo, Murphy, Megan Gross ’20 and M. Likins getting the job done. The men were led to victory by Wyatt Foss ’21, Eli Samuelson ’20, Graham Letkeman ’22 and Shanahan. When the points were added up, the women’s team cruised to a 182- 105 blowout, while the men were able to pull off a much closer 153-142 win.
Both teams will look to keep rolling when they compete in the NCAC Championships on Feb. 12-15 in Granville, Ohio.