Scots at NCAC Relays to Kickoff 2007-08 Season

Mateo Chinchilla

The College of Wooster men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams open their season on Saturday, Oct. 20, with the annual North Coast Athletic Conference Relays. This year’s event is being hosted by Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and is slated to begin at noon.

2007-08 Preview Notes (Men): Sporting a 29-man roster, which includes 15 individual scorers at previous North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, Wooster may be primed to move into the top-three of the preeminent swimming conference in NCAA Div. III. The Fighting Scots are on a string of four-straight fourth-place finishes in the league.

Leading the way is expected to be sophomore Eric Babbitt (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. / Santa Margarita Catholic). As a freshman, he was just shy of all-NCAC status, coming in fourth in the 200 butterfly (1:54.96) and sixth in the 100 fly (52.37). Babbitt, who also took 11th in the 500 freestyle (4:44.11), narrowly missed out on becoming the first Scot from the men’s team to qualify for the NCAA Div. III Championships since 2001, as his time in the 200 fly was a provisional standard for nationals, but he ended up falling short of the cut.

In addition, Logan LaBerge (Towson, Md. / Towson) and Ryan Radtke (Willoughby, Ohio / Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin) look to build off impressive freshman years. Radtke broke a 28-year old school record in the 200 IM, while placing 12th in that event at NCAC’s (1:58.74). He was also 12th in the conference in the 100 breast (1:01.60), while LaBerge made a significant impact with top-15 showings in three events – 11th in the 100 backstroke (54.33), 13th in the 200 free (1:47.74), and 14th in the 500 free (4:48.79).

This season’s senior class should not be overlooked. Mateo Chinchilla (North Olmsted, Ohio / North Olmsted) has been one of the NCAC’s top breaststrokers throughout his career and is coming off of 9th-place finishes in the 100 (1:00.10) and 200 (2:11.66) last year. In fact, his time in the 200 set a school record. Additionally, seniors Matt Dominski (Winnetka, Ill. / New Trier Twp.), Kyle Oaks (Franklin, Ind. / Franklin Community), Ted Polley (Crawfordsville, Ind. / Crawfordsville), Joe Thomas (St. Louis, Mo. / Ladue Horton Watkins), and Joe Witkowski (Bloomfield Hills, Mich. / Groves) have been
consistent scorers at the conference level. Dominski is a butterfly specialist, having reached the consolation finals all three years in both the 100 and 200, including 10th- and 13th-place efforts in the 200 (1:59.10) and 100 (53.14) last season, respectively. Oaks has served as the team’s top sprint freestyler at times during his career, while Polley and Witkowski will likely give the Scots a strong 1-2 punch in the distance freestyles. Witkowski has been as high as 10th in the NCAC in the 1650 (17:37.57), that coming at the 2006 meet.

Another key veteran in the pool will be junior breaststroker Andrew Olsen (Evanston, Ill. / Evanston Twp.). He’s been swimming nearly identical times as Chinchilla, finishing 10th in the league in both the 100 (1:00.38) and 200 (2:11.75) last winter.

The divers could play an integral role, too. Senior Alex Gauvin (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Community) returns following a year away from the program and looks to pick up where he left off, as he nearly won a conference title, taking runner-up honors on the three-meter board (373.40) in 2006. Junior Dustin Klein (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Fox Chapel Area) scored on the one-meter board last season, placing eighth overall (286.30).

2007-08 Preview Notes (Women): Following an uncharacteristic 2006-07 season, in which the Scots placed fifth at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships and did not have an individual qualifier for nationals, they look to bounce back and prove that last year was an aberration. Wooster had finished among the top-three in the conference from 1998-2005 and scored at the NCAA Div. III Championships 21-straight seasons prior to last March.

Junior Meggie Edwards (Lynchburg, Va. / E.C. Glass) missed last spring due to studying abroad. She earned All-American honors as a freshman, placing 13th nationally in the 100 backstroke (59.11), and is a standout in the sprint freestyle races as well, having finished top-10 in three events at the conference meet that year.

In addition to Edwards, senior co-captain Denise Koessler (Knoxville, Tenn. / Farragut), senior Milena Mauric (Ashland, Ohio / St. Joseph Central Catholic), senior Laura McHugh (Massillon, Ohio / Canton Central Catholic), junior Molly Bittner (Westfield Center, Ohio / Cloverleaf), sophomore Alice Case (Berkeley Hts., N.J. / Mount Saint Mary Academy), and sophomore Allie Kibler-Campbell (Benton Harbor, Mich. / St. Joseph) give the Scots returning talent and depth in the sprints. Case hopes to build on a pair of 10th-place finishes at the NCAC Championships, as she ended up in that position in both the 50 free (25.26) and the 100 butterfly (1:00.59). Bittner has been in six career consolation finals at NCAC’s, including 11th in the 100 fly (1:01.63), tied for 11th in the 50 free (25.34), and 12th in the 100 free (54.65) last season, while Kibler-Campbell, Koessler, and McHugh have also produced top-16 individual showings in the conference previously.

In the distance freestyle, senior co-captain Amanda Bailey (Westlake, Ohio / Westlake) will lead the way again. She’s an eight-time scorer at the league meet, including 9th-place efforts in the 1650 free (18:35.70) and the 400 IM (4:46.64) last winter.

Looking at the other strokes, sophomores Rachel Bennett (Tulsa, Okla. / B.T. Washington) and Kate Kosenick (Fanwood, N.J. / Scotch Plains-Fanwood) will complement Edwards in the back. They advanced to the NCAC’s consolation heat in both the 100 and 200 as freshmen, with Kosenick touching 12th in the 100 (1:03.47) and Bennett matching that finish in the 200 (2:15.93).

The breaststroke area appears to be a strength, too, where sophomore Syd Kelly (Edina, Minn. / Edina) looks to reach a championship heat after nearly doing so last year. She won the consolation in the 100 (1:10.11) and was 10th overall in the 200 breast (2:30.95), while Kibler-Campbell’s top NCAC efforts came in the 100 breast as she took 11th-place (1:10.64). Junior Lindsey Dorko (Chardon, Ohio / Perry), who finished as high as 11th in the 100 breast (1:12.36) at the 2006 conference meet before missing last February, returns healthy.

Backing up Case and Bittner in the butterfly will be sophomores Elaine Coladarci (Evanston, Ill. / Evanston Twp.) and Kristine Mann (Warren, Ohio / Howland) among others. Mann was 12th-best in the NCAC in the 200 fly (2:17.66) last season, while Coladarci aims to build on her 19th-place finish in that event (2:23.98).