GRANVILLE, Ohio – First-year Ollie Bream scored All-North Coast Athletic Conference honors in the 200 butterfly, and The College of Wooster swimming and diving program had three NCAA Div. III "B" cuts and broke three records on the final night of the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, which were contested at Denison University's Trumbull Aquatics Center. Wooster's women's team finished in fourth-place, while the men's team took fifth.
Bream maintained all-conference positioning throughout the 200 butterfly championship final. In fact, the Scots' sensational first-year was running second until the final 50 yards. Bream's third-place time of 2:03.74 marked a new collegiate-best, her second Div. III "B" cut time of the day in the event, and she's now second in program history in the event, trailing six-time All-American Kate Hunt's 2:02.95. Her time from Saturday would rank in the top-15 nationally as of the start of the week, with times from this week's meets yet to be accounted for on the national leaderboard.
Of note, Bream was part of all four of Wooster's all-conference swims at this year's championships. She is Wooster's first rookie to earn four all-conference honors since Meggie Edwards did so at the 2006 NCAC meet. Additionally, the Fighting Scots have had a women's swimmer earn four All-NCAC honors in back-to-back championships, with Molly Likins doing so in 2020, which was the last time the NCAC meet was contested.
On the men's side, sophomore Josh Pearson became the third different Scot since 2016 to hold the program record in the 200 butterfly. Pearson continued his torrid drop of times from prelims to finals, turning a 1:52.84 from the morning session into a 1:50.85 in the nightcap. Pearson placed fifth in the event, with the time also marking a Div. III "B" cut. Elsewhere in the butterfly, junior Kay Wetmore's 2:16.57 was eighth in the women's championship final, while first-year Isaac Shaker's 1:55.55 was the winning time in the men's consolation final, and moved him up to seventh in the event in program history.
Wooster's women's distance crew logged a strong showing in the 1,650 freestyle. Senior Kate Schlegel sparked the Scots there, posting a 18:46.75 during the earlier prelim heats. The senior vaulted up to eighth after the final heat, where sophomore Emma Connors' fifth-place time of 18:01.14 was backed up by Wetmore's sixth-place clip of 18:11.38.
Sophomore Maddie Becker turned in Wooster's first record-setting swim of the day. Wooster's record-holder in the 100 individual medley coming into the meet logged the first-sub-1:00 time of 59.93 in program history, and nearly had an identical pace in finals, coming in at 59.94, which ranked fourth. Likins lowered her personal-best in the event to 1:01.28, which is the second-fastest time in program history, and she placed seventh. On the men's side, senior Doak Schultz went 52.84, matching alumnus Griffin Campbell's school-record time from 2017. Schultz's time ranked fifth in the field.
Two Wooster championship final qualifiers came out of the 200 breaststroke prelims. In the nightcap, senior Madison Whitman placed fifth with a time of 2:22.54 and Likins went 2:25.67 to claim eighth-place. First-year Izzy Bellefleur's 2:30.84 was the winning time in the consolation final. On the men's side, first-year Tucker Andrewjeski led Wooster's entrants. Andrewjeski, who was not in the program's top-10 in the event prior to the NCAC meet, quickly took care of that in prelims with a 2:08.84, which is the third-fastest time in program history. He went 2:09.96 in finals, taking 11th-place.
First-year Max Likins qualified for his first championship final, thanks to a 1:56.12 in the 200 backstroke prelims. In the nightcap, he went 1:56.05 and placed eighth.
Other individual top-five program times included first-year Hallie Findlan's 52.14 in the 100 freestyle, which ranks second in program history. Findlan placed 11th at the NCAC Championships.
In relays, Findlan, senior Mia Chen, Likins, and Becker capped the championships with the fourth-place time of 3:37.38 in the 400 freestyle relay. On the men's side, Pearson, Schultz, Shaker, and first-year Ryan Gross wrapped up the events with the sixth-place time of 3:09.56.
Other top-18 finishers for the Scots on Saturday included senior Robby Beal (1,650 freestyle, 17:44.80, 15th), first-year Zach Fickes (100 individual medley, 56.35, 16th), sophomore Lyonel Fritsch (200 butterfly, 2:01.25, 15th), junior Noah Golovan (200 breaststroke, 2:13.11, 14th), Gross (100 freestyle, 47.54, 12th), first-year Ari Inwood (200 breaststroke, 2:16.53, 16th), first-year Aiden Lentz (200 backstroke, 2:03.45, 15th), junior Graham Letkeman (200 backstroke, 2:02.12, 14th), and first-year Andre Yazhbin (1,650 freestyle, 17:25.09, 14th). On the women's side, those other placers within the top-18 included Chen (200 backstroke, 2:12.00, 11th), junior Min Kim (200 backstroke, 2:17.06, 16th), first-year Vicky Maumbe (200 breaststroke, 2:45.33), first-year Teagan McCullough (200 breaststroke, 2:44.19, 17th), Schlegel (200 butterfly, 2:20.59, 11th), and first-year Mariam Zayour (200 backstroke, 2:15.94, 15th). Senior Emma Bossaert won the bonus heat of the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:18.68.
Denison edged out Kenyon College for the men's title 1,978.5-1,973.5, with the championship marking the Big Red's 13th. Wabash College (1,117 points), DePauw University (994 points), and Wooster (973.5 points) rounded out the top five, with the Scots' point haul ranking as the second-most in program history. Kenyon claimed its 27th NCAC women's championship with a 1,958-1,749 victory over Denison. DePauw (1,225 points), Wooster (1,092 points), and Oberlin College (827 points) occupied places three through five.
Next, select members of Wooster's team may compete at next Saturday's Kenyon Fast Chance Meet.