No. 22 men finish 14-2-1 overall, women improve to 8-9 with wins

The Case Western Reserve University swimming and diving teams rounded out their regular-season schedule with a sweep of crosstown rival Baldwin Wallace University last Friday, Feb. 1.  The men cruised to a 153-72 victory in the sprint-distance meet that featured 50- and 100-yard events, as opposed to the standard 100- and 200-yard distances.  The women also topped the Yellow Jackets by a comfortable margin, beating the home team 122-108.

The men finished 14-2-1 overall, and were undefeated in Division III meets.  The women improved to 8-9, just under a winning record.  The Yellow Jacket men fell to 2-10 while the women dropped to 4-8.

The No. 22 men took the warm-up meet before next week’s University Athletic Association Championship to recover from last week’s upset of No. 19 Ohio Northern University.  The win avenged last year’s 158-136 loss to the Polar Bears and put the Spartans back in conversation for a top finish at the UAA championship.

“Last year’s loss to ONU was tough,” said head coach Doug Milliken.  “We took it hard, but we used that as a wake-up call heading into the UAA Championship.  This year, we have to use it as stepping-stone, but we can’t get complacent.  If we do that, we won’t be successful.”

Last year, the men finished third in the conference championship meet, finishing the season ranked No. 14.  They were 43.5 points behind the University of Chicago.  The women finished in seventh last year.

The women also had an impressive win against the visiting Polar Bears last week as they had a +102 point swing from last year’s 176-126 loss to this year’s 175-123 win.

“I think this was a huge win for our women’s team,” said Milliken.  “For the first time all year, I felt that we finally put a whole meet together and it showed in the results.  ONU is a great team and…to make as big of a swing as we did this year is tremendous and something the women should be proud of!”

With the Spartans heavily favored in the meet against Baldwin Wallace, a number of underclass got a chance to shine against the Yellow Jackets.

Sophomore David Wolfson won the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10 minutes, 34.11 seconds for his first win of the season.

A trio of freshman picked up the top three spots in the 200-yard freestyle as rookies Jason Arne, Alec David, and Daniel Sederholm finished ahead of the Yellow Jackets.  Arne won with a time of 1:49.08.

Sophomores Elliott Kerbel and Eric Haufler also picked up individual blue ribbons.  Kerbel won the 50-yard backstroke in 27.37 seconds, while Erid Haufler touched the wall first in the 200-yard individual medley in 1:59.84.  Sophomore Caleb Allen won the 100-yard freestyle in 50.88 seconds while freshman Aaron Tam won the 500-yard freestyle in 4:49.25.  David also won the 50-yard butterfly in 25.20 seconds.

Seniors Chris Emr and Kyle Tepe also got in on the fun as the two won both sprint 50’s of the freestyle and breaststroke, respectively.  Emr won with a time of 21.79 while Tepe finished first in 28.83.

Freshman Jacob Kasper picked up for Daniel Jacobson who had the week off, winning both diving disciplines.  Kasper had 161.65 points on the one-meter springboard and 244.35 points on the three-meter.

The men also won the 200-yard medley relay as Eric Haufler, Kerbel, sophomore Andrew Bollinger and Arne teamed up for a time of 1:40.27.

Junior captain Maggie Dillione and sophomore Abby Glenn who each had two wins led the women individually.

Dillione won both of the 50-yard freestyle and butterfly with a best of 25.37 seconds and 27.54 seconds respectively.  Glenn won both distance events for the Spartans, taking home the 500-yard freestyle in 5:33.27 and the 1,000-yard freestyle in 11:22.12.

Krysta Payne won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:20.56 while freshman Rebecca Pakradooni won the 100-yard freestyle.

The women also won the 200-yard freestyle relay as freshman Nicole Thompson, sophomore Sarah Mastrandrea, freshman Rachael Loek, and Pakradooni finished first in 1:44.74.

The Spartans will travel to the University of Chicago next week from Feb. 13-16 for the UAA Championship.  The men are currently 4-0 in conference dual meets while the women are 0-4.