Rachel Appleton

Peter Parisi

The College of Wooster's teams each moved up one place in their respective standings during Friday's action at the North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships, the second of three full days in Canton, Ohio, as the men now sit in fifth-place in their 10-team field and the women fourth out of nine.

The Fighting Scots men's team broke three school records and posted four "B" cuts for the NCAA Div. III Championships, while boosting their point total to 377, just ahead of Wittenberg University (362.5) as the two rivals contend for a spot in the top-half of the conference standings. Wooster also is still within striking distance of fourth-place Wabash College (434.5), while Denison University (1111.5) leads Kenyon College (1065) in the battle for the team title.

Wooster started Friday's night session in style, as Alex LaJoie, Peter Parisi, Brian Maddock, and Imre Namath joined forces to shatter a school record in the 200 medley relay. Their time of 1:33.11, good for fourth-place in the highly-competitive conference, was more than a full second faster than what they had established as the program's top mark last year (1:34.47), and it marked an NCAA "B" cut.

Individually, Parisi recorded a pair of "B" cuts, highlighted by a 56.87 in the 100 breaststroke. That lowered his own school record in the event by more than half a second and put him in fourth-place during the championship heat. Demonstrating the strength of the NCAC, Parisi finished 12th overall in the 100 butterfly, with his mark of 56.87 also being a "B" cut.

One team record exchanged hands during the day. In the morning, Maddock broke LaJoie's mark in the 100 backstroke with a 51.81 time while qualifying for the championship finals where he finished in seventh-place (51.78), but LaJoie took the record back during the consolation heat, which he won (ninth-place) in 51.56, also marking an NCAA "B" cut.

Also advancing to consolation finals for the Scots were Namath, who touched 14th in the 100 back (54.26), and Evan Hagedorn, who was 16th in the 100 breast (1:01.07).

The women's standings look similar, with Wooster, now at 526 points, aiming to hold off Wittenberg (504.5) as well as Allegheny College (484), while DePauw appears to be comfortably in third (630.5) and Denison barely leads Kenyon 1162-1153.5 in the battle of the Div. III powerhouses.

Kate Hunt continued her strong NCAC meet, putting together a second all-conference performance (top-three) in as many days. After earning third in the 50 freestyle Thursday, she swam a 56.13 during the morning's 100 fly preliminaries, breaking her own school record and producing an NCAA "B" cut in the process, then she hit the wall in a similar time (56.35) while taking third-place in the finals.

Rachel Appleton also advanced to a championship heat as an individual, doing so in the 100 breast with a time of 1:07.99 in the prelims. She followed with a similar 1:08.24, resulting in sixth-place.

One of the keys to the Scots moving up in the standings was the 400 IM, as they had seven scorers in that event. Colleen Kill led the way in 10th-place (4:42.11), followed closely behind by teammate Samira El-Adawy in 11th (4:43.76), and Caroline Hanson was also in the consolation heat, taking 16th (4:51.35). Lena Smith won a "bonus" heat filled with her Wooster teammates for 17th-place overall (4:47.90).

Additional top performances of the day included Kaitlyn Fries's 11th-place in the 100 breast (1:08.32), Morgan Hughes and Anna Duke swimming the 100 fly in 12th (58.74) and 14th (1:00.33), respectively, Clare Walsh coming in 16th in the 100 back (1:00.57), and in the diving well, Adriana Hoak notched 12th-place on the one-meter board (252.60).

The NCAC Championships will conclude on Saturday.