Anna Duke
Sports Editor
The College of Wooster Swimming and Diving team dominated the pool last week in their dual meet against Oberlin College. The women’s team unexpectedly triumphed over the Yeomen by 18 points while the men’s team followed suit, recording a comfortable victory.
After losing to Oberlin last year by 20 points in a dual meet, the women’s team went into this meet prepared to battle for a win.
“Oberlin is a strong team,” said Morgan Hughes ’15. “We are pretty evenly matched, but on paper they were the potentially faster team.”
Each team took home eight first-place finishes, forcing the end result of the meet to be decided based on depth. Two first-place finishes came from standout Jillian Saccogna ’18 who ruled both the 50 and 100-yard sprint freestyle events. Courtney McGovern ’17 added two more first-place finishes in both backstroke events.
The team was able to beat Oberlin with great depth demonstrated by many strong team finishes. The Scots shone in the 100-yard breastroke. Alex Desotelle ’16, Kaitlyn Fries ’15 and Erin Drake ’16 took first, second and third place respectively. Later on in the meet, Wooster managed to place first, third and fourth in the 100-yard freestyle.
Diver Theresa Spadola ’17 also helped secure the women’s team win when she edged out Oberlin’s diver in the three meter by less than two points.
“[Spadola] has been working really hard, and it’s fun to see how well she is doing,” said Hughes.
From the start of the meet, the men’s team had an upper hand over the Yeomen in numbers. Oberlin’s men’s team has 12 swimmers and divers, which made it difficult for the team to field swimmers in every event while maintaining their stamina, especially when competing in a 16-event format like this past weekend.
Even with the advantage, the Scots came to compete. They placed first in 11 out of the 16 events with multiple swimmers placing first in different events. Both senior captains, Evan Hagedorn ’15 and Brian Maddock ’15, placed first twice in individual events. Hagedorn dominated both the 100 and 200-yard breastroke. Maddock added first place finishes in the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard butterfly. Zackary Pool ’16 took first place in the 200-yard butterfly and second in the 100-yard butterfly. Aaron Brown ’17 placed first individually in the 100-yard freestyle, beating the second-place swimmer by almost two seconds. Maddock, Hagedorn, Pool and Brown joined forces in the 400-yard medley relay at the start of the meet and placed first by six seconds.
“We had a very hard week of practice and lifting,” said Hagedorn. “It was good to see people go around the same time or faster than the previous week. Our team is really beginning to hit their stride.”
The Scots will travel to Cleveland, Ohio to compete against Case Western Reserve University on Friday and then face Hiram College on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Timken Natatorium.