Julie Kendall
Sports Editor
The College of Wooster swimming and diving teams hosted the Wooster Invitational last weekend, which took place Thursday through Sunday at Wooster High School’s Ellen Shapiro Natatorium and featured 10 Div. II and Div. III teams from the Ohio and Pennsylvania areas. The women’s team took third place, while the men’s team broke five program records on their way to a sixth-place finish. Combined, the Scots totaled five event victories and six times that qualified as “B” cuts for the NCAA Div.-III Championships.
The women’s team totaled 1,262 points, placing them first for teams in their division. Big points came from the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams, both finishing third with a lineup of Kate Hunt ’13, Mariah McGovern ’14, Clare Walsh ’13 and Morgan Hughes ’15. Their team times were 1:37.85 and 3:35.49, respectively.
Highlighting the individual results was Hunt, who earned NCAA Div.-III “B” cut times in both butterfly events. She was the champion of the 100 butterfly (56.63) and placed second in the 200 butterfly (2:05.53). Additionally, Hunt finished fourth in the 50 free (24.30).
Kara Markham ’14 put up a dominant first-place performance in the 1650 freestyle, finishing a full three seconds faster than the runner-up with a time of 17:52.66. Samira El-Adawy ’13 finished within the top-five for three different events, including the 400 IM (4:38.19, second place), 200 IM (2:11.05, fourth place) and 200 backstroke (2:09.72, fifth place).
Additional highlights came from Hughes, who finished fifth in the 100 free (53.21), sixth in the 50 free (24.60) and seventh in the 100 fly (59.19). McGovern’s top individual performance came in the 500 free, where she placed fourth with a time of 5:16.38. Caroline Hanson ’13 and Kaitlyn Fries ’15 finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in the 200 breaststroke (2:30.71 and 2:31.93).
The men’s team, which scored 837 points to finish in the middle of the field, featured record-breaking performances from Peter Parisi ’13, Alex LaJoie ’13 and Brian Maddock ’15. Parisi surpassed his own school records and made NCAA Div. III “B” cuts in the 100 butterfly (49:83) where he finished in third, and the 100 breaststroke (56.99) where he took fourth place. Parisi also contributed big points via a second-place finish in the 50 free (21.45).
LaJoie’s record-breaking 200 backstroke performance came in the prelims (1:52.81). He would go on to place second in the event’s finals with a slightly slower time of 1:54.95. LaJoie also placed second in the 100 back (51.42) and fourth in the 200 IM (1:56.40). Both LaJoie and Maddock surpassed the previous school record in the 100 backstroke (52.38), with LaJoie earning second place (51.42) and Maddock coming in fourth (52.01).
The team of Parisi, LaJoie, Maddock and Imre Namath ’13 also reset their previous record in the 200 medley relay, earning third place and a “B” cut time of 1:34.47. The Scots put up several more strong relay performances, including a win in the 400 free relay. The team of Elliot Ferrier ’16, Joe Wilch ’13, Evan Hagedorn ’15 and Zach Rashid ’15 took first with a time of 3:25.93. The 400 medley relay team of Zackary Pool ’16, Hagedorn, Steven Hardy ’14 and James Love ’15 finished third with a time of 3:40.45.
The Scots will break from competition until Jan. 12, when they will travel to Ohio Wesleyan for an inter-conference dual meet.