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| Colleen Kill, pictured here during Friday's action at the Wooster Invitational, produced three top-10 finishes over the three-day meet. |
The College of Wooster combined for 12 championship finals performances, two individual victories, two "B" cut times for the NCAA Div. III Championships, and a host of other strong swims from the women's team, all part of its third-place finish at the 10-team Wooster Invitational, held from Thursday to Saturday at the Ellen Shapiro Natatorium at Wooster High School.
The Fighting Scots totaled up 1,262 points, only placing behind two strong Div. II programs from northwest Pennsylvania – Gannon University (1536) and Edinboro University (1429.50).
Kate Hunt, Kara Markham, Samira El-Adawy, and the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams were among the highlights for Wooster. Hunt accounted for both NCAA "B" cut times, both coming in the butterfly events as she won the 200 in 2:05.53 and took runner-up in the 100 with a 56.63. Those marks were just shy of her own school records (2:05.10, 56.24), and she also sprinted to fourth-place in the 50 free (24.30).
Markham had a breakthrough performance in the 1650 freestyle, finishing first in the grueling event in 17:52.66, three seconds faster than the runner-up from Edinboro. That could put Markham, who added a 10th-place swim in the 500 free (5:17.74), on track to an NCAA "B" cut (17:39.80) during the spring semester.
Like Hunt, El-Adawy was among the top-five finishers in three different events, exhibiting her versatility via a runner-up in the 400 IM (4:38.19) and fourth-place in the 200 IM (2:11.05) while also producing fifth in the 200 backstroke (2:09.73).
Joining forces with Hunt in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays were Morgan Hughes, Mariah McGovern, and Clare Walsh. They came in at 1:37.85 in the 200 and 3:35.49 in the 400. At this time last year, the team of Hunt, Hughes, Walsh, and alum Melissa Haug, had a nearly identical time of 3:35.37, and they went on to earn first-team All-American honors via an eighth-place finish at nationals.
Individually at the Wooster Invitational, Hughes complemented Hunt with a sixth-place in the 50 free (24.60) and a seventh in the 100 fly (59.19) as well as leading the team via a fifth in the 100 free (53.21). McGovern and Walsh were ninth and 10th, respectively, in the 100 backstroke with times of 1:00.39 and 1:01.08, while the former's top showing was fourth-place in the 500 free (5:16.38).
Another championship heat (top-eight) qualifier was Caroline Hanson, who notched fourth in the 200 breaststroke (2:30.71), just ahead of teammate Kaitlyn Fries in sixth (2:31.93). Fries won the consolation finals of the 100 breast for ninth-place (1:10.20), as did Colleen Kill in both the 200 IM (2:13.93) and 400 IM (4:45.34). Kill nearly won a third, settling for 10th in the 200 fly (2:15.23), while rounding out the Scots' top-10 efforts was freshman Lena Smith, who touched 10th in the 400 IM (4:50.70).