Before the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams went home to feast on turkey and stuffing, they feasted on the competition at Grove City College on Saturday, Nov. 19, in a quad meet. The Case Western Reserve University men swept the competition while the women went 2-1.

The Spartan men defeated Gannon University, Grove City College and the University of Rochester with scores of 200-79, 180-116 and 164-124 respectively. The women picked up their two wins against Gannon and Grove City by scores of 179-115 and 166-134, but they fell to Rochester 190-110.

Head Coach Doug Milliken was very happy with where his team was going as they headed into the Thanksgiving break, especially after a tough week of training. “I am pleased with where we are at,” he said. “We have performed very well while being tired and sore.”

Third-year students Drew Hamilton and Aaron Pang had exceptional days. Both Hamilton and Pang won two races at the meet. Hamilton won the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:45.16 and the 100-yard freestyle in a time of 48.50, which was a career-best for him. Pang won the 200-yard butterfly in a time of 27.08 and the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 24.57. The 200-yard freestyle relay team consisting of Hamilton, third-year student Oliver Hudgins, second-year student Brody Schmidt and fourth-year student Andrew Henning won its event with a time of 1:27.34.

On the women’s side there were no individual event winners, but third-year student Inez Moore and first-year student Sarah Taekman each picked up second place finishes in their respective events. Moore placed second in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 25.24. Taekman’s second place finish was in the 200-yard breaststroke where she recorded a time of 2:31.50.

When asked about individual swimmers and divers and who stood out Milliken declined to highlight any one person. “This was a total team effort,” he said. “For us to be successful at that meet, we needed everyone to step up.”

After the meet the CWRU men improved to 6-2 on the season while the women moved to 5-2.

The Spartans will travel to Wooster from Thursday, Dec. 1, to Saturday, Dec. 3, for the Wooster Invitational. This will be their last meet before winter break and will serve as a benchmark to see where the teams stand at this midway point in the season.