WOOSTER, Ohio – Eleven championship final finishes, including two first-place showings and a NCAA Div. III "B" Cut, surged The College of Wooster women's swimming and diving team up the leaderboard to a runner-up finish at the program's annual Wooster Invitational at Chris Mathew Aquatic Center, while the men's team broke a record and remained in third-place on Saturday.
Sophomore Ollie Bream convincingly won her signature event – the 200 butterfly – with a NCAA Div. III "B" cut time of 2:05.14. Bream was within :01.14 of her collegiate-best time that qualified her for the Div. III Championships last season. Her Saturday time was the best in the field by nearly three seconds, and she led the event wire-to-wire. Senior Kay Wetmore's 2:16.88 was the sixth-place time in the event.
Earlier, winning started immediately for Wooster, as first-year Lacey Mindock went 17:51.12 to take the 1,650 freestyle. Mindock, who posted the ninth-fastest time in program history, was followed by junior Emma Connors (18:07.10) and senior Kay Wetmore (18:12.95), who were third and fourth, respectively. First-year Emma Humbert's ninth-place time of 18:56.67 gave Wooster a meet-leading four top-10 placers in the event.
First-year Gracie Duchon's prelims-leading time of 1:00.83 marked the second-fastest 100 individual medley time in program history. Duchon returned at night for a 1:01.68, which was the runner-up time in the field. Senior Min Kim scored a fourth-place finish in the event at 1:08.02, and sophomore Celia Gehrke's 1:11.22 was a top-10 time at the meet.
Two Scots raced in the championship final of the 200 breaststroke. Junior Maddie Becker claimed third-place with a time of 2:28.58. Sophomore Izzy Bellefleur supported Becker's effort with the seventh-place time of 2:31.88.
Sophomore Hallie Findlan qualified for the championship final of the 100 freestyle with a 54.39 in Saturday's prelims. Findlan lowered her time to 53.44 in the final session of the three-day meet, and that time was fourth in the field.
Sophomore Mariam Zayour qualified for the championship final in the 200 backstroke and registered the eighth-place time of 2:22.12. Kim, competing in the consolation final, had Wooster's top time on the night at 2:19.34.
In relay action, Findlan, Duchon, Becker, and Bream teamed up for a 3:37.67 and took third-place in the 400 freestyle relay. Connors, first-year Keara Wiley, first-year Patricia Chen, and Mindock were seventh at 3:46.12.
Senior Doak Schultz took down Wooster's first record of the week, lowering his program-best in the 100 individual medley to 52.41, the runner-up time on Saturday. Noah Golovan's collegiate-best time of 55.39 ranked fifth in the field, and the senior improved upon his fifth-fastest time in program history. Senior Noah Fox rounded out the championship final with a time of 58.55 and classmate Sam Muse took the consolation final with a time of 57.82.
Junior Josh Pearson, Wooster's standout butterfly specialist, lowered his prelim time of 1:54.09 to 1:52.37 in finals to score a runner-up finish. Sophomore Isaac Shaker's 1:56.73 won the consolation final.
Tucke Andrewjeski nearly took down Evan Hagedorn's 200 breaststroke school record of 2:07.46 with a 2:07.64 in Saturday's prelims. Andrewjeski posted a similar time of 2:07.71 in the championship final to score a fourth-place finish.
Callum Glover's 47.54 came up just shy of cracking the program's top-10 list but did earn the first-year a spot in Saturday's championship final. There, Glover went 47.68, which was eighth.
Pearson, Schultz, sophomore Ryan Gross, and Glover's 3:08.21 garnered third-place honors in the meet-capping 400 freestyle relay. Further down, first-year Boston Sullivan, Shaker, first-year Flynn Cowie, and sophomore Zach Fickes took eighth-place at 3:15.05.
In the diving well, sophomore Alex Linderman scored 149.75 points to place seventh.
Sophomore Max Likins led Wooster's entries in the 200 backstroke with the 11th-place time of 1:58.61, while classmate Andre Yazhbin's 17:55.18 was 16th and tops from Wooster in the 1,650 freestyle.
University of the Cumberlands won the meet 2,112.5 points on the men's side and 1,911 on the women's. Wooster's 1,575 women's points were comfortably ahead of Pennsylvania Western University Edinboro's 1,369.5 after the Scots started the day 23 points behind Edinboro. University of Mount Union (1,113.5 points) and Westminster College (559 points) rounded out the top-five women's teams in the 10-team field. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology was the men's runner-up at 1,666 points, while Mount Union (1,088.5) and Edinboro (792.5) were in the top-five among the nine men's teams. Wooster scored 1,208.5 points.
Wooster is idle until a dual meet at Baldwin Wallace University on Saturday, January 14 at 1 p.m.