Sam Kuhn
Contributing Writer
The swimming and diving teams headed to Denison University this past weekend to compete in the NCAC Championships.
“We knew going into the meet that we had a chance at fourth place so that was what drove us all meet,” said Conner Gelwicks ’17. Lasting four days, the Scots had notable performances from both the men’s and women’s side each day, and came in fourth on both the men’s and women’s side. Another highlight included women’s coach Rob Harrington bringing home the NCAC Women’s Coach of the Year. His team amassed three “B” cuts, three school records, eight individual championship heat swimmers and three top four relays. The women’s team surpassed 1,000 points for the second straight year.
On Wednesday, Emma Fikse ’19 delivered a school record and NCAA Div. III “B” Cut in the 200-freestyle during her leadoff leg for the fourth place 800-freestyle relay (1:51.89). On the men’s side, Cameron Gelwicks ’19, Max Koch ’19, Ryan Campbell ’19 and Conner Gelwicks lowered their own school record in the 800-freestyle to 6:49.56.
Thursday saw some championship action, as Cameron Gelwicks turned in an impressive last 25 yards of the 400-medley relay to give the Scots its first all-conference certificate of the Championships. The group of the Gelwicks, Trey Schopen ’20 and Griffin Campbell ’19 finished in 3:27.03 and edged Wabash by .04 seconds to claim third. In the men’s 500-freestyle, Koch shattered Gelwicks’ school record with a time of 4:37.36. In the 200-freestyle relay, Garret Layde ’19, Aaron Brown ’17 and Griffin and Ryan Campbell splashed into fourth (1:24.11). To the 1-meter diving board, Aaron Salzman ’17 finished eighth with a score of 357.10.
For the women, Fikse achieved another school record and NCAA Div. III “B” cut in the 500-freestyle, coming in fourth (4:59.28). In the process, she became one of two women in Wooster history to break five minutes in the event. The 200 freestyle relay saw Fikse, Megan Gross ’20, Lissy de la Chapelle ’17 and Jamie Hibbs ’17 come in fifth (1:39.91). On Friday, Maggie Layde ’18 finished fourth in the 100 fly (57.87), and Fikse also came in fourth, posting another NCAA Div. III “B” cut (1:52.23).
Saturday saw a lot of championship action, as Griffin Campbell earned all-conference in the 100 IM with a third place time of 52.84, setting the school record in the process. In the 400-freestyle relay, Cameron and Conner Gelwicks, Layde and Ryan Campbell surpassed a 17-year-old school record (3:05.62). Layde continued his day with a third place, “B” cut, All-NCAC time of 1:52.43 in the 200-butterfly. Fikse continued her incredible meet, qualifying for the 100-freestyle championship and bringing home sixth place (52.65). In the 200-butterfly final, Layde (2:09.17) and Kalla Sturonas (2:11.97) placed fifth and seventh, respectively. Rachel Mandel ’19 finished sixth in her first championship heat start in the 200-breaststroke (2:35.44).
Senior Captain Conner Gelwicks is optimistic about the future of the program looking from the meet, saying “Saturday prelims was a huge session for us, people stepped up in their events and got into the top finals to set us up for a good final session. I think if the team gets a good recruiting class then next year they can be closer to third place.”