Abby Blinka

Aaron Brown

The College of Wooster swimming and diving teams recorded their 11th straight North Coast Athletic Conference dual meet sweep as the Fighting Scots topped Oberlin College by 164-115 (men) and 157-115 (women) scores on Saturday afternoon at the Timken Natatorium in Wooster, Ohio.

Alison Hsu led the way for the women and finished the meet as a triple winner. Hsu teamed up with Abby Blinka, Kalla Sturonas, and Emma Fikse for the first-place 200 medley relay that clocked in at 1:55.26. Then, Hsu cruised to the wall in the 100 backstroke with the winning time of 1:03.7, and later, doubled-up in the backstroke events with the winning time of 2:14.83 in the 200-yard race. Hsu also turned in the fastest time in the 400 individual medley (4:54.90).

Blinka, part of the winning relay, earned triple-winner distinction of her own, and doubled-up in her specialty breaststroke events, winning the 100 (1:13.29) and the 200 (2:41.35). In fact, Wooster claimed the top three places in both breaststroke events with Rachel Mandel (1:14.33) and Caleigh Balon (1:16.99) backing Blinka up in the 100-yard race, and Balon (2:45.13) and Allison Clough (2:46.35) finishing in second- and third-place respectively in the 200-yard race.

Wooster's depth was evident in the meet as the Scots earned the top two finishes in two non-breaststroke events. First, Nell Kacmarek's time of 11:23.51 in the 1000 freestyle was backed up by Sarah Padrutt's 11:36.72. Then, Jamie Hibbs out-touched teammate Lissy de la Chapelle in the 50 freestyle with Hibbs hitting the deck at 25.86 and de la Chappelle at 26.02.

Other wins were turned in by Kalla Sturonas in the 100 butterfly (1:01.72) and Maggie Layde in the 200 butterfly (2:15.65).

On the men's side Trey Schopen earned triple-winner status. The freshman joined forces with Conner Gelwicks, Burke Poeting, and Aaron Brown in the 200 medley relay, with the quartet's 1:40.50 ranking nearly three ticks better than Wooster's "B" relay. Individually, Schopen won both butterfly events with times of 54.08 and 2:01.93 in the 100- and 200-yard races respectively.

Wooster also had a trio of double-winners in Brown, Cameron Gelwicks, and Max Koch.

In addition to swimming as part of the winning relay, Brown led the way in the 50 freestyle and held off Oberlin's Nils Gudbranson down the stretch with Brown's 22.49 bettering Gudbranson's 22.60.

Cameron Gelwicks hit the deck at 10:28.45 in the 1000 freestyle, and later posted a 49.47 in the 100 freestyle. Notable, Cameron Gelwicks also had the fastest time by over 10 seconds in the 400 individual medley (4:33.06).

Koch earned his first-place wins in the 200 (1:50.60) and 500 (5:02.66) freestyles.

Other winners on the men's side were Eli Samuelson in the 100 backstroke (56.45) and Aaron Salzman in the 1-meter diving competition (233.40 points).

Notable, the men turned in 10 top three swims in the freestyle events, headlined by a one-two-three finish in the 200-yard race with Conner Gelwicks (1:52.94) and Griffin Campbell (1:54.27) backing up Koch's winning time.

Next, Wooster has its first road dual meet of the season as the Scots take on Case Western Reserve University on Friday at 6:30 p.m.