Roesch, Whittam Each Win Three Events at Wooster Invitational

Elizabeth Roesch won three events at the Wooster Invitational.

Led by three individual wins apiece from Elizabeth Roesch and Liz Whittam, The College of Wooster women's swimming and diving team cruised to a first-place finish at the three-day Wooster Invitational, held at Wooster High School's Ellen Shapiro Natatorium this past weekend (Dec. 2-4).

Overall, the Scots were victorious in 13 of the 20 events to easily outdistance the rest of the 11-team field with 1,525 total points. The next closest squad was Westminster (Pa.) College (1,387).

Roesch not only won the 500 and 1650 freestyles, and 400 individual medley, in times of 5:02.60, 17:32.30, and 4:37.87, respectively, but she qualified for the 2005 NCAA Div. III Championships in each of those events. The senior distance specialist's mark in the 500 “automatically reserves her a spot in the national field, while her times in the 400 IM and 1650 freestyle were provisional-qualifying marks, or “B cuts.”

Whittam was equally impressive in pacing the Wooster Invitational field in the 200 breaststroke and the 200 IM with national B-cut times of 2:26.04 and 2:09.07, respectively. She also won the 100 butterfly, touching the wall in 59.38.

The Scots didn't have any other double- or triple-winners, however, Kim Chambers turned in three top-three swims, including a victory in the 200 freestyle (1:56.45), an event in which she just missed out on an NCAA qualifying time. Chambers was the runner-up in the 200 backstroke (2:12.39) and third overall in the 500 freestyle (5:14.19).

Wooster had three individuals advance to the championship heat (top-eight) in a pair of events –— the 50 and 200 freestyles. Adrienne Smith topped the field in the 50 with a time of 25.03, while right behind her were teammates Denise Koessler in fourth (25.76) and Gretchen Nofsinger in seventh (26.16). Complementing Chambers' win in the 200, Amanda Bailey and Koessler finished seventh (2:02.34) and eighth (2:05.61), respectively.

The other individual winner for the Scots was junior diver Shannon McIntyre, who took top honors on the one-meter board (264.15). She was runner-up in the three-meter competition (258.35).

In relay action, Wooster won four of the five events, highlighted by the 400 and 800 freestyle teams, which produced provisional-qualifying times for the 2005 NCAA Div. III Championships. In the 400, it was the team of Chambers, Adrienne Smith, Koessler and Whittam posting a mark of 3:37.54, while Roesch, Whittam, Bailey, and Chambers teamed together for a time of 7:54.50 in the 800.

The Scots' other relay victories were in the medley's, as the 200 team of Patti Ross, Roesch, Whittam, and Adrienne Smith bested the field in 1:52.33, and the 400 team consisting of Ross, Roesch, Whittam, and Chambers emerged victorious in 4:03.26.

As an individual, Ross advanced to a pair of championship-heat finals in her specialty –— the backstroke –— taking third in the 100 (1:03.23) and fourth in the 200 (2:15.99).

Wooster had four other top-eight efforts in the pool. Koessler was third in the 100 freestyle (55.57), followed in that race by Adrienne Smith in fourth (55.70), Kathryn Lehner placed fifth in the 200 butterfly (2:23.24), and Courtney Lee contributed a sixth-place showing in the 1650 freestyle (19:03.44).

Also noteworthy, Sarah Steele won two consolation finals for ninth-place in the 100 breaststroke (1:12.74) and the 200 IM (2:19.62), while Bailey and Nofsinger won consolation races in the 500 freestyle (5:24.45) and 100 butterfly (1:04.16).