In a spectacular conclusion to the Case Western Reserve University’s swimming and diving teams’ final dual meet of the 2024-2025 season, the Spartans upset Kenyon College’s No. 6-ranked men’s team and No. 1-ranked women’s team 169-128 and 158-140, respectively. Both teams improved 5-1 in dual meets.
“It was definitely not quite expected. [There’s] a lot of good competition, especially with Kenyon. It’s no surprise that we all did really well. They’re one of the top schools in our division, so we weren’t expecting to actually pull off the win. [It] definitely was a bit of an upset. They brought in an unusual squad, put in some unusual events, and we definitely took advantage of that. I think also we were just very prepared for the end of the season. We were all ready to go. That led to the overall success that we had this weekend,” fourth-year Peter Meng commented.
During Saturday’s meet, Meng broke both the school and pool record as he took first place in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:26.40.
“I view records as setting a bar. When I leave, I want to set the bar as high as I can for the future of the team,” he said. “Records are made to be broken. You set a record, someone’s going to break it sooner or later. And for me personally, I just want to see how long it takes for me to be replaced.”
During the meet, the women’s team also saw an impressive performance by fourth-year Gabriella Chambers, who matched the previous school record of 23.42 in the 50-yard freestyle. Chambers also secured two B cut times in both the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle (51.16).
Chambers was also part of the victorious opening 200-yard medley relay with fourth-year teammates Simone Vale and Kate Menzer and third-year Claire Kozma. The team finished 1:48.10 for the win. Vale and Kozma also contributed first-place finishes, with Vale winning the 100-yard backstroke (59.30) and Kozma taking the 100-yard (57.86) and 200-yard butterfly (2:07.31).
The men’s team also swept both relays, with third-years Emil LaSida, Julian Kim, William Froass and Mason Bencurik taking the opening 200-yard medley (1:30.63) and LaSida, Froass, Bencurik and third-year Ben Borvendeg taking the concluding 200-yard freestyle (1:22.71). Bencurik swept the individual freestyle races with times of 45.78 in the 100-yard race and 1:40.41 in the 200-yard race.
From the diving board, CWRU took all four first-place finishes. On the women’s team, fourth-year Abigail Wilkov claimed both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives with 308.25 and 314.18, respectively. Fourth-years Nico Billoni and Alex Waltman took the 1-meter (314.10) and 3-meter (304.80) dives, respectively.
This was a special day not only for the teams’ upset against Kenyon—which the men’s team had not won against since 2011 and the women’s team since 2000—but also for the 18 graduating fourth-years on the team. The class of 2025 is one of the largest recruiting classes in the swimming and diving team’s recent history.
“I really like being on this diving team for my entire time at college, there were definitely some ups and downs. There was even a brief moment where I kind of took a break from diving, and I really just wasn’t feeling the same passion for it as I used to. But then, you know, coming into this year, I really wanted to give it my all, and put my foot back in the team. There was a lot of memories that were to be made. This is an amazing team overall. I’ve met so many great people here, and I’ve been close with them since freshman year. Coming into Case, as a student athlete especially, was just really great, because my class there was so many of us. When I came in as a freshman, my class was literally half the entire swim team,” Billoni commented. “Seeing that come to an end was definitely a little sad. Definitely gonna really miss this team a lot, and also the sport in general. I’ve been diving since sophomore year of high school, so about seven years. It’s gonna be a little weird not doing it.”
Meng shared a slightly different sentiment as he reflected back upon Senior Day.
“I think Senior Day is more of a statement to how I put in so much time and effort into the sport. And I wouldn’t say the end goal was [to] walk out on senior day and take a picture with my parents. I think the senior day was just a signal that I should make the most of whatever little time I have left to finish with no regrets,” he said.
The teams will not compete this weekend while they prepare for next week’s conference championships in Atlanta hosted by Emory University. The four-day competition will begin on Wednesday, Feb. 12. At the end of the month, the qualifying members of the team will be travelling to Crawfordsville, Indiana, for the NCAA Diving Regionals, including Billoni.
“My main goal [this season] was to qualify for regionals, because that’s something I’ve really been trying to do all four years, and I finally got it this past weekend. So that was really special, especially on senior night. And it just felt so perfect. You know, my family was there and they got to see me qualify. It was really special. I think I just want to go there. Have fun, do my best, but mostly have a good time.” Billoni said.