Scot Women's Swimmers Dominate Wooster Invitational, Winning 11 Events

Kayle Heising had a big weekend at the Wooster Invitational, breaking three pool records.

The College of Wooster women's swimmers and divers capped their fall semester with another dominating performance, this time nearly accumulating 2000 points (1943) at the Wooster Invitational to win the nine-team event, held Dec. 4-6 at Wooster High School, by over 500 points.

The Scots, who went 4-0 in dual meets this fall, prevailed in 11 of 20 events to cruise past challengers such as Case Western Reserve University (1355), Baldwin-Wallace College (1213), and Westminster College (1108), and they combined for 16 NCAA Div. III Championships-qualifying times.

Wooster won four of the five relay events, highlighted by pool records and national-cut marks in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, which each consisted of Kayla Heising, Adrienne Smith, and Sonya and Tanya Tarasenkov. They teamed up to hit the wall in 1:36.48 in the 200 and 3:34.14 in the 400.

The Scots also demonstrated their strength in the sprint freestyles in individual races. In fact, they swept the first four spots in the 50 freestyle, paced by Heising, who re-set her own pool record in the event and recorded an automatic-qualifying mark for the NCAA meet with a time of 23.52. Not far behind were Sonya and Tonya Tarassenkov and Smith in second (24.95), third (24.99), and fourth (25.26), respectively.

Equally dominant in the 100 freestyle, Wooster placed five in the top-seven. Heising won with another pool record and a provisional-qualifying time of 52.39, while Sonya Tarasenkov touched second and posted a B cut time herself of 53.63. Taking fifth, sixth, and seventh were Tanya Tarasenkov (54.83), Smith (55.08), and Gretchen Nofsinger (57.34).

Heising broke a third pool record and qualified for nationals in another race, winning the 100 butterfly (58.43). She was complemented in that event by teammate Amy Clark, who had a B cut time and fourth-place showing (59.86).

The Scots had another triple-event winner in Liz Whittam. She took top honors in the 200 (2:11.72) and 400 individual medleys (4:40.42) as well as the 200 breaststroke (2:28.00), while registering provisional-qualifying marks for the NCAA Championships in each. Distance freestyle-specialist Elizabeth Roesch was runner-up in three events -- 500 freestyle (5:04.80), 1650 freestyle (17:50.77), and 400 IM (4:41.71) -- all of which she turned in national-cut times.

Wooster also had strong showings in the backstrokes. Kim Chambers won the 200 (2:14.19), followed closely by teammate Patti Ross in third (2:15.17), while the 100 saw Ross take third (1:02.71), Chambers fifth (1:03.02), and Jen Jenkins eighth (1:05.53).

Additionally, the Scots put three individuals in championship heats in the 200 freestyle and 200 butterfly. Sonya Tarasenkov was runner-up in the 200 freestyle (1:58.62), while backing her up were Chambers in fifth (2:00.07) and Holly Duff in eighth (2:02.88). In the 200 butterfly, Clark was the third-place finisher (2:14.20), followed by Kathryn Lehner and Nicole Greene in seventh (2:22.16) and eighth (2:23.12), respectively.

Other notables included a fifth-place effort out of Noel Wells in the 1650 freestyle (18:47.4), Duff coming in seventh in both the 500 (5:25.66) and 1650 freestyles (19:06.06), and Nofsinger touching seventh in the 100 butterfly (1:03.80).