The College of Wooster men’s swimming and diving team
bested the competitors at this weekend’s annual Wooster
Invitational held at Wooster High School, finishing ahead of Ohio
Northern University and Westminster (Pa.) College, and won the
11-team event with a total of 1,285 points. Ohio Northern ended the
three-day event in second with 1,250 points, followed closely by
Westminster (1,244), Case Western Reserve University (1,064.50),
Gannon University (857), Oberlin College (763), Edinboro University
(713), Allegheny College (672.50), and the other three schools well
back.
Highlighting Wooster’s successes were four school records
that fell during the three-day event. In the 100 backstroke, Logan
LaBerge touched the wall in school-record and NCAA Div. III
‘B’ provisional cut time of 52.45. Also setting a
school record was the 400 medley relay team of LaBerge, Andrew
Olsen, Eric Babbitt and Michael Saltzman, who took home first-place
honors with a time of 3:29.94, shaving over two seconds off
the previous record and nearly missing a ‘B’ cut. In
addition the 200 medley relay team of LaBerge, Olsen, Horgan and
Babbitt placed second and also lowered the school record by over
two seconds with a time of 1:34.86.
LaBerge notched a school-record victory in the 200 backstroke with
a time of 1:54.34, also an NCAA Div. III 'B' cut, edging out
El-Adawy’s second-place finish in 1:56.08. In addition,
LaBerge swam a strong race in the 500 freestyle event, posting a
second-place finish in 4:48.02.
Other notable relay finishes were the 800 freestyle relay team of
LaBerge, Ryan Radtke, Adel El-Adawy and Jon Quiery finished fourth,
clocking in at 7:12.85, while the Scots’ 200 freestyle relay
of Babbitt, Quiery, El-Adawy and Radtke stopped the clock first in
a time of 1:25.40. Additionally, the quartet of Babbitt, Quiery,
Horgan and Saltzman led the 400 freestyle relay team to a
fifth-place finish, clocking in at 3:12.43.
Individually for Wooster, Babbitt took home three individual event
titles. He outsprinted the field in the 50 freestyle (21.34),
touched first in his specialty during the 100 butterfly (51.42) and
the 200 butterfly (1:53.13). In the 400 individual medley, Radtke
bested the field with the second-quickest time in school history
(4:15.53), while he wound up third in the 200 IM (1:58.94),
resetting his own school record in the process (1:57.90), and sixth
in the 1650 freestyle (17:12.94).
El-Adawy finished second and eighth during the championship heats
of the 100 back (53.46) and the 200 IM (2:02.93), respectively,
while Quiery grabbed a sixth-place swim in the 200 freestyle
(1:46.95) and touched the wall eighth in the 50 freestyle
(22.11).
Olsen notched a pair of top-six finishes for the Scots, finishing
third in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.07) and sixth in the 200
breaststroke (2:14.68). The 100 freestyle also saw Horgan wind-up
with an eighth-place finish in 48.53 after a preliminary swim of
48.43.
In the diving competition, the Scots’ Luke Knezevic placed
second in both the one- and three-meter events finishing behind
Ohio Northern’s George Chesney in each event. Knezevic racked
up 397.55 points to Chesney’s 414.70 in the one-meter event,
and posted a score of 388.15 points to Chesney’s 439.00 in
the three-meter.
The Scots will be idle until after the New Year, returning to
action to host Hiram College in a dual-meet on Jan. 9 beginning at
6 p.m.
