Chambers' Three Wins Leads Scot Women
to Runner-Up Finish at Wooster Invitational

Kim Chambers

Behind individual victories by Kim Chambers and Meggie Edwards on the third and final day of the Wooster Invitational, held at Wooster High School’s Ellen Shapiro Natatorium Dec. 1-3, The College of Wooster improved two spots from where it stood at the end of Friday into second-place out of 11 teams.

Overall, Wooster finished with 1,199 points, not far behind team champion California University of Pa. (1,221.5), an NCAA Div. II institution. The top-four were all close, with Div. II Ashland University and Westminster (Pa.) College winding up in third (1164) and fourth (1152), respectively.

The rest of this year’s field consisted of Case Western Reserve University (843), Oberlin College (797), Ohio Northern University (586), John Carroll University (540), West Virginia Wesleyan College (339.5), Lycoming College (323), and St. Vincent College (147).

For the Scots, Chambers was the story of the meet, as the senior won three events, highlighted by the 200 individual medley on Thursday, in which her time of 2:10.75 met the provisional-qualifying mark for the NCAA Div. III Championships. Chambers also won her specialty, the 200 freestyle (1:56.78), on Friday, and capped her successful weekend by placing first Saturday in the 1650 free (18:17.57).

Edwards was Wooster’s other individual champion, as she came up with a key victory in the 100 freestyle on Saturday, hitting the wall in 54.37. Fellow Scot first-year Molly Bittner was about a half-second behind and took third overall (54.90).

Chambers, Edwards, and Bittner, combined with sophomore Laura McHugh, for the Scots’ best relay result of the weekend – first-place in the 200 freestyle. Their time of 1:40.04 was just 0.45 seconds off of the NCAA’s provisional standard.

Individually, Edwards, Bittner, and McHugh were all key scorers for Wooster in the 50 freestyle. Edwards came in third in the finals (25.00) after having the top prelim time (24.93), Bittner also reached the championship heat (top-eight) and finished fifth (25.24), and McHugh tied for ninth (25.89).

Bittner was a significant factor in the 200 free as well, qualifying for the championship final, in which she placed third (2:00.12). Also in that event, Courtney Lee was 11th (2:04.72).

Lee’s top showings, though, came in the distance races, as the senior hit the wall fifth in the 500 freestyle (5:27.61) and recorded the meet’s fourth-fastest time in the 1650 (18:52.13).

One spot behind in the mile was sophomore teammate Amanda Bailey, who swam the event in 19:02.18. Bailey also won consolation finals (ninth-place overall) in the 500 (5:26.03) and 400 IM (4:57.26).

Outside of the freestyles and IMs, senior Patti Ross turned in the Scots’ top finishes, as she placed third in both the 100 and 200 backstrokes with times of 1:02.99 and 2:13.91, respectively, and also qualifying for championship heats were freshman Lindsey Dorko and junior Kathryn Lehner. Dorko touched sixth in the 200 breaststroke (2:34.98) and tied for sixth-place in the 100 breast (1:10.64), while Lehner came in eighth in the 200 butterfly (2:24.90).

Rounding out Wooster’s noteworthy performances were senior Gretchen Nofsinger earning 12th- and 14th-place finishes in the 100 butterfly (1:04.10) and 200 breaststroke (2:39.39), respectively, and classmate Noel Wells taking 16th in the 500 free (5:42.54)