Sophomore standout Conner Gelwicks broke a 34-year-old school record in the 200 freestyle, headlining The College of Wooster's men's swimming and diving team's results at its Wooster Invitational, held at Wooster High School's Ellen Shapiro Natatorium from Thursday to Saturday. The annual semester-closing competition brought together another strong field of teams, with this season's consisting of four from NCAA Div. II and five from Div. III, and the Fighting Scots faired very well, leapfrogging Div. II Edinboro University on the final day for sixth-place with 773 points.

It was a breakthrough weekend for Gelwicks, as he set two school records and qualified for championship heats (top-eight) in all three individual events he was entered, but his signature moment was certainly overtaking a former national champion for the best time in Wooster history in the 200 free. After qualifying for Friday night's finals with a 1:43.09 during the prelims, Gelwicks raced to a 1:42.66, four-hundredths faster than Stan McDonald's long-standing school mark (1:42.70; 1980) in the event. McDonald won the 1979 NCAA Div. III championship in the 200 butterfly.

Brian Maddock reacts to his strong performance in the 200 IM (1:56.02) Thursday morning.

Gelwicks followed up that third-place 200 free swim (two Div. II competitors were ahead of him) with another team record on Saturday. He covered the 200 backstroke in 1:51.81, exactly one second faster than Alex LaJoie's recent mark (1:52.81; 2013) for fourth-place overall. Teammate Brian Maddock was also part of the 200 back championship as he touched in eighth (1:58.58).

Gelwicks, who added a sixth-place performance in the 500 free (4:47.94), was not the Scots' lone  record setter. Senior Evan Hagedorn sliced his own program best in the 200 breaststroke, first established at the 2014 conference meet, by about 1.5 seconds with a 2:08.52 while taking fourth in the competitive field. He was sixth in the 100 breast with a 58.64, a half second faster than his previous best.

Maddock, like Gelwicks, was in three championship heats. The senior backstroke specialist-turned-IMer came in sixth in the 200 IM and eighth in the 400 IM with top times of 1:56.02 and 4:15.08, the third- and fourth-fastest performances in Wooster history, respectively.

In addition, Maddock led off the Scots' highest finishing relay of the invite, as the 200 medley, also consisting of Hagedorn, Zackary Pool, and Aaron Brown, posted a fifth-place effort (1:35.24). Individually, Brown was a factor in the sprint freestyles, notching 14th in the 50 (21.45) and 15th in the 100 (48.09), and Pool produced 13th- and 15th-place showings in the 200 (1:58.16) and 100 butterfly (53.47), respectively.

Other leading performances in the pool included Jacob Earle touching 10th in the 200 breast (2:11.89), Travis Burgess 16th in the 200 fly (1:59.58), and James Lorenzin and James Austin grinding out respective places of 14th (17:33.72) and 17th (17:49.11) in the 1650 free.

In the diving well, Aaron Salzman provided Wooster with some significant scoring, taking runner-up on both the one-meter (382.70) and three-meter (323.80).

The Scots will resume their traditional dual-meet schedule on Jan. 10.