Wooster in Final Training Mode for NCAC Championships

Alice Case

After completing the dual-meet portion of their schedule with matching 8-2 records, The College of Wooster men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will be idle from competition this week, in preparation for the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships Feb. 14-16. The 24th annual event, widely considered as the top swim competition in NCAA Div. III outside of the national meet, will be hosted by Wittenberg University and is set to begin next Thursday morning at C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton, Ohio, and will run through Saturday night. Preliminary heats are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. each day and the finals will start at 6:30 p.m. each evening. Wooster’s men’s team has finished in fourth-place (out of nine) the past four seasons, while the Scot women came in fifth (out of eight) last year.

Last Week: On Feb. 2, Wooster split its final dual of the 2007-08 campaign, with the women nearly doubling-up Grove City College 196-100 and the men suffering a 43-point setback (171-128) to the host Wolverines.

Leading the women at Grove City were double-winners Alice Case (Berkeley Hts., N.J. / Mount Saint Mary Academy), Tamari Farquharson (Kingston, Jamaica / Mercersburg Academy – Pa.), and Julie Pinzur (Northbrook, Ill. / Glenbrook North). Case swam to victories in the 200 freestyle (1:59.94) and the 100 butterfly (1:01.49), sandwiched around a runner-up showing in the 50 free (25.56). Farquharson paced her respective fields in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.21) and the 100 free (54.96), while the diving competition saw Pinzur sweep her way to titles on the one-meter (203.00) and three-meter (199.90).

The Scots added individual first-place finishes in five other events – Amanda Bailey (Westlake, Ohio / Westlake) in the 500 free (5:31.46), Meggie Edwards (Lynchburg, Va. / E.C. Glass) in the 100 backstroke (1:01.94), Syd Kelly (Edina, Minn. / Edina) in the 200 IM (2:20.55), Kristine Mann (Warren, Ohio / Howland) in the 200 fly (2:20.70), and May Tobar (Athens, Ohio / Athens) in the 200 back (2:16.26).

Wooster’s men’s squad featured a triple-winner in Eric Babbitt (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. / Santa Margarita Catholic). He swept the butterfly races, taking the 100 in 52.26 and the 200 in 2:00.17, and prior to that, topped the 200 freestyle field with a time of 1:46.77. Fellow Scot sophomore standout Logan LaBerge (Towson, Md. / Towson) was the top backstroker of the meet, winning both the 100 (54.49) and 200 (1:59.06).