The Case Western Reserve University Swimming and Diving teams took first at Ohio Northern University (ONU) on Saturday, Jan. 26.

The men’s team defeated ONU 179-119, bringing their season record to 6-2.

The women’s team beat both ONU and the NCAA Division II team from Hillsdale College with scores 243-54 and 204-90 respectively, bringing their season record to 7-2.

First-year swimmer Anna Smith and second-year teammate Caitlyn VonFeldt teamed up with fourth-year Spartans Suhan Mestha and Alli Drohosky to take the women’s 200-yard medley relay, swimming in at 1:50.84.

Smith continued solo, winning her bid at the women’s 100-yard butterfly with a time of 59.86.

Mestha and VonFeldt joined first-year teammates Sarah Krueger and Daniella Rupert to win the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:40.90.

Krueger then took first in the 1,000-yard freestyle, while Rupert sped into first in the 200-yard freestyle, completing their races in 11:02.11 and 1:59.56 respectively.

Mestha went on to win both the 50-yard freestyle, 24.67, and the 100-yard freestyle, 54.07. VonFeldt took the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard backstroke, with times of 1:00.16 and 2:10.37 respectively.

First-year diver Hailey Seibert made a splash in the women’s diving event, scoring 189.25 in the one-meter dive and 188.00 in the three-meter dive.

Fourth-year diver Sydney Anderson took second in the women’s three-meter dive and third in the women’s one-meter dive. Fellow fourth-year diver Vera Bostwick picked up a second place win in the women’s one-meter dive and a third place win in the women’s three-meter dive. Together, Seibert, Anderson and Bostwick almost entirely edged out the ONU and Hillsdale diving competitors.

Olivia Picchione, a third-year swimmer, also picked up a win in the women’s 200-yard individual medley.

The CWRU men’s team won 11 out of the 16 competitions against ONU.

The Spartan men swept the individual freestyle competitions. First-year swimmer Neil Wible took first in both the men’s 100-yard freestyle and men’s 200-yard freestyle, with times of 48.44 and 1:46.42. Fourth-year teammate Brody Schmidt won the title in the men’s 500-yard freestyle with a speedy 4:52.17, while fellow fourth-year swimmer Keith Erichsen took home the gold in the men’s 1,000-yard freestyle at 10:03.64.

First-year teammates Nick Schoenig and Calvin Tecson triumphed over the competition in the men’s 100-yard backstroke and the 50-yard freestyle respectively. Their corresponding times were 52.99 and 22.12.

“The win over ONU was empowering as we bounced back from a tough meet at SUNY Geneseo,” Schoenig said. “After our loss, we had a team discussion, and the team knew we could do better. I believe that motivation for redemption led to a better outcome for our meet at ONU.”

The Spartans continued to take gold throughout the meet, with several more noticeable wins before the dual meet was over.

Will McDonald, a second-year student, took the men’s 200-yard backstroke at 1:57.66, and fellow second-year student Jakob Woerner took the men’s 200-yard butterfly with a time 1:57.51. Sean Twomey added his weight to the second year power trio, winning gold in the 200-yard individual medley and swimming in at 1:59.07.

Second-year diver Cassiel Yuzik took first in the one-meter dive, scoring a whopping 215.70 points. Yuzik also took the three-meter dive with a score of 226.45, almost 50 points ahead of the second place finisher, Mark Fox, another second-year Spartan diver.

In addition to his team accomplishments at ONU, the University Athletic Association (UAA) recognized Yuzik as the UAA Diver of the Week for his outstanding performance against the Polar Bears. This is Yuzik’s second UAA Athlete of the Week honor in his collegiate diving career.

Yuzik is the second Spartan on the swimming and diving team to be named to the UAA Swimming and Diving Athlete of the Week honor this season. Mestha earned the honor as well in November 2018.

On Friday, Feb. 1, the Spartans will have their Senior Night in the Veale Natatorium, facing off against Notre Dame College at 6 p.m. The team is graduating 13 members, all of whom will be honored at the meet.