Sam Kuhn
Senior Sportswriter
This past weekend, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams both finished their NCAC (North Coast Athletic Conference) dual meets undefeated with matching 5-0 records. Earlier in the year, they beat Wittenberg University, Hiram College and Oberlin College before outswimming Ohio Wesleyan University and Allegheny College last Saturday. This is the fourth straight year that the women have gone undefeated against NCAC teams.
Michelle Sayre ’21, Brooke Brown ’21, Lexi Riley-DiPaolo ’21 and Maggie Layde ’18 finished first in the 400-yard medley relay, a mere second ahead of Allegheny. Later in the meet, Layde brought home another first-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:18.74. Emma Fikse ’19 had two more first-place finishes, along with Sarah Padrutt ’18 in four different freestyle events. Padrutt took to the distance events and led the way for the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyles, winning the 1,000 by over ten seconds. Fikse finished first in the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle with times of 54.62 and 1:58.39. Fikse was tabbed as the NCAC Athlete of the Week due to her first-place finishes, along with two other first-place finishes in a meet last Friday against John Carroll University.
When asked about the importance of going undefeated in regards to the upcoming NCAC championships, Brooke Brown ’21 said, “As we head into the NCAC championship, it was important to go undefeated to boost the team’s confidence. We want to prove that we are a fast and competitive team going into conference. It has also helped us as a team to challenge one another in practice and support each other more at meets. We need to keep a positive mentality and use this ongoing momentum as we go into conference.”
The men also won the 400-yard medley relay, which consisted of Eli Samuelson ’20, Griffin Campbell ’19, Trey Schopen ’20 and Cameron Gelwicks ’19. This relay was more closely contested than the women’s, with the men edging Ohio Wesleyan out by just about three-tenths of a second. Gelwicks remarked about the meet in general, “We know that when we come together as a team, we can put together some great times overall.”
The men put together another first-place relay with Ryan Campbell ’19, Wyatt Foss ’21, Max Koch ’19 and Garrett Layde ’19 in the 400-yard freestyle. Campbell followed that with a first place in the 500-yard freestyle. Combined, the Scots turned in 33 top-three performances in swimming events as well as two more in diving events. Additionally, the women swept the podium with the top three times in the 400-meter medley and 1,000-meter freestyle.
The Scots have one final meet in preparation for the NCAC Championships. Mount Union will travel to Wooster this weekend for a meet on Saturday at 1 p.m. Gelwicks remarked on the remainder of the season, “It’s always exciting to go undefeated against conference teams during the season, but at NCAC Championships, everyone starts on an equal playing field … so now the main focus is placing as high as possible at conference.”