Tankers Open Season With Back-to-Back Sweeps

The College of Wooster men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams opened up the 2004-05 season with back-to-back sweeps against Mt. Union College and Wittenberg University on Friday and Saturday (Oct. 29-30). The men’s squad cruised by Mt. Union (115-80) on the road and then dominated the Tigers at home (153-84), while the women let loose against the Purple Raiders (140-70) and swam past the Tigers (127-107).

The men dominated Mt. Union on Friday, winning seven of 11 swimming events. The Scots started the day off the right way, as the team of senior Austin Carter, and freshmen Mateo Chinchilla, Matt Dominski, and Kyle Oaks touched the wall first in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:46.77. Dominski and Oaks also teamed up, along with sophomore Brandon Dugar and senior Clint Nicely, to take the top time in the 200 freestyle relay (1:33.41).

Individual swimmers from the winning relays also did well, as Carter, Chinchilla, and Oaks, and Dugar each won their events. After starting off the 200 medley relay, Carter took first place in the 100 backstroke (59.03), while Chinchilla continued his successful freshman debut with the top time in the 100 breastroke (1:07.96). Oaks and Dugar posted the top times in the 50 freestyle (23.36) and the 100 butterfly (56.07), respectively.

The Fighting Scot men followed up their impressive showing at Mt. Union with an even more impressive display against Wittenberg, winning 10 of 12 swimming events overall. Dugar, Oaks, and Nicely finished 1-2-3 in the 50 freestyle with times of 22.87, 23.29, and 23.62, respectively. Wooster also went 1-2 in the 400 freestyle relay as the team of Noble, Nicely, Oaks, and Dugar (3:22.14) beat out the team of Carter, freshmen Joseph Thomas, junior Corey Maras, and senior Zach Carter (3:30.84) by over eight seconds.

Dominski capped off a successful day with wins in the 200 freestyle (1:55.95) and the 200 butterfly (2:09.56), while freshman Alex Guavin took both the one-meter and three-meter diving competitions.
The women’s squad had similar dominating performances against their opponents on Friday and Saturday, winning nine of 11 swimming events against Mt. Union and nine of 12 against Wittenberg.

Junior Patti Ross had a productive day, starting the winning 200 medley relay team with seniors Sarah Steele and Adrienne Smith and sophomore Aileen Cameron (1:57.55), placing second in the 200 individual medley (2:28.17), and touching the wall first in the 100 yard backstroke (1:04.53).

Other first-place performances were turned in by senior Jessica Metcalf in the 1000 freestyle (11:58.97), freshman Amanda Bailey in the 200 freestyle (2:05.29), junior Gretchen Nofsinger in the 100 butterfly (1:05.17), and junior Courtney Lee in the 500 freestyle (5:45.45).

Senior Elizabeth Roesch picked up where she left off last year by winning the 1000 and 500 freestyle events with times of 10:44.78 and 5:14.66, respectively, in the meet against Wittenberg. The women also won both relay events, as the team of junior Kim Chambers, Steele, senior Liz Whittam, and Smith won the 400 medley relay (4:08.79), and the squad of freshmen Denise Koessler, Amanda Bailey, senior Nicole Greene, and Roesch touched the wall first in the 400 freestyle relay (3:51.25).

Whittam and Chambers posted double-wins in their individual events as Whittam took the top times in the 200 individual medley (2:12.91) and the 100 freestyle (55.78), while Chambers touched the wall first in the 200 freestyle (1:59.74) and the 200 backstroke (2:13.73).

Next up for the Scots will be an annual invitational held at Meadville, Pa. and hosted by Allegheny College on Nov. 5-6.