Scots Nearly Pull Off Sweep, Settle for Split with Westminster

Dan Noble

The College of Wooster men's swimming and diving team came up just short in its bid to knock off Westminster's squad on Saturday, falling to the Titans 127-104 and suffering its first loss of the 2004-05 dual meet season at Timken Natatorium. On the women's side, the Scots remained perfect this year (4-0) by defeating the Lady Titans 122-101.

After dominating last season's meet 121-78, Westminster had little to fear from Wooster, but the fired-up Scots gave the Titans all they could handle as the meet came down to the last two events of the day. Down by just seven points entering the 200 breaststroke, the Scots knew they needed a big win, but Westminster took the top-two spots and then went on to capture first in the 200 freestyle relay to pull out the victory.

The Scots started the day well, as the team of junior David Brumbaugh, freshman Mateo Chinchilla, sophomore Andy Nicol, and senior Clint Nicely touched thee wall first in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:40.60. Sophomore Dan Noble was huge for Wooster, winning the 200 IM (2:03.02) and following that up with a sub-50 100 freestyle (48.96) to take first in that event. Freshman Matt Dominski continued his impressive performance this season by winning the 200 butterfly in convincing fashion with a 2:04.97 finish. Alex Guavin was the Scots' only other winner on the day, beating out teammate Todd Koenig in both 1-meter (234.85) and 3-meter (213.75) diving events.

The Scot women took nine of 13 events on the day, including posting wins in the first four contests. Sophomore Kathryn Lehner, juniors Gretchen Nofsinger and Hannah Graf, and freshman Denise Koessler touched the wall first in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:53.50. The Scots followed that opening showing with wins in the 1,000 freestyle, 200 freestyle, and 50 freestyle as freshman Amanda Bailey, junior Kim Chambers, and sophomore Adrienne Smith finished ahead of the pack with times of 11:22.08, 1:58.54, and 25.:38, respectively. Chambers doubled her win total as she and senior Liz Whittam finished 1-2 in the 200 backstroke with times of 2:11.19 and 2:13.05, respectively, while senior Elizabeth Roesch continued her dominance in the 500 freestyle (5:19.38), winning by nine seconds. Whittam added a victory in the 200 breaststroke (2:30.25) to close out the Scots' top-performances on the day.

Wooster will take a break from competition with Thanksgiving break coming up. The Scots finish out the first half of their season by hosting the Wooster Invite on Dec. 2-4 at Timken Natatorium.