Scot Women Win at Allegheny, Men Take Sprint Portion of Invite

Sophie Brym

The women’s team showed its depth by winning six out of seven events on both Friday and Saturday. The sprint meet was highlighted not only by the wins, but also two national-qualifying swims and four Allegheny Invitational records.

Individually, Wooster junior Jenny Bayuk set an invite record and posted an NCAA cut in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:08.06. Freshman teammate Liz Whittam bettered her national cut in the 200 individual medley and also broke an invite record in a time of 2:10.49. Bayuk and Whittam were joined by sophomore Kayla Heising and freshman Sophie Brym to round out the 200 medley relay, which placed first and established a new meet record with a time of 1:51.70. The other Allegheny Invitational record was set by the Scots’ 200 freestyle relay team of Whittam, Brym, Heising, and freshman Kate Henley, which won the event with a mark of 1:40.17.

On Saturday, the Wooster women continued their powerful performances. The Scots swept the 400 individual medley finals that night, coming in places No. 1 through No. 7 led by Whittam, who turned in another NCAA Championships-cut, winning the event with a first-place time of 4:42.50. Another meet record was set by the 800 freestyle relay of Brym, Whittam, senior Lori Mitskavich, and sophomore Sonya Tarasenkov with a mark of 8:12.98. while other winners were sophomore Jody Bray in the 1650 freestyle (N/A), and senior diver Sara Connolly in three-meter diving (N/A).

Other strong events for the Wooster women included sweeping the top-three in both the 200 breaststroke and backstroke events. The breaststroke sweep consisted of Bayuk (2:30.11), then senior Beth Starling (2:30.13), and Whittam (2:34.15). Whittam led the way in the backstroke (2:17.05), followed by sophomore Jen Jenkins (2:20.37) and freshman Elizabeth Roesch (2:20.89).

"The women had an outstanding weekend at Allegheny," Scot head coach Keith Beckett said. "They dominated the competition in both the sprint and distance invitational. Saturday’s final score of 948 was the highest point total ever for us and for any team at this (annual) meet. We had a series of exceptional swims and got to display our depth in a number of different events."

The Wooster men’s team also had a very successful weekend at Allegheny. On Friday, they won a number of events, culminating in a first-place showing by the 200 freestyle relay team of sophomore Mike Moore, sophomore Curtis Wolfe, senior Eric Knauss, and freshman Clint Nicely with a time of 1:30.81 that clinched the Scots’ team win in the sprint portion of the meet. Individually on Friday, Curtis Wolfe claimed victory in the 100 freestyle (49.23).

On Saturday, Wooster was led by sophomore Jim Gilchrist, who won the 500 freestyle (5:02.53) and hit the wall second in the 400 individual medley (4:28.83). Freshman Kevin Wolfe produced second-place finishes in the 200 butterfly (2:11.31) and 200 backstroke (2:08.45), while sophomore Mike Durik was the runner-up in the 1650 freestyle (N/A). Also noteworthy, sophomore Adam Yack made strong contributions in the 200 butterfly (N/A) and 500 freestyle (N/A), finishing in sixth in both of those events.

Beckett noted, "The men’s team swam with talent and depth to accumulate enough points for a second-place finish, but had points nullified due to a swimmer in a relay entering the water before the conclusion of the competition."

Despite that he was still "very happy with the men’s team performance."

"All the men in the lineup contributed to the win on Friday, and I think the shock of that win over Allegheny, Grove City, and Geneseo State helped fuel the strong swims on Saturday."

The Scots return to dual meet action next, when they travel to John Carroll University on Saturday (Nov. 17) for a tilt that is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.