Campus Times Archives
After a competitive four-day UAA Championship meet hosted by Case Western Reserve University, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are hanging up their suits for the end of the regular season. Despite having a young team on both sides, they finished strong with new school records, NCAA B Provisional Cuts, as well as seventh and sixth place overall finishes, respectively.
On the men’s side, the ’Jackets swam fast enough to achieve new 200-yard medley relay and the 800-yard free relay records. The 200 medley record was broken in preliminaries by freshmen Russell Rosenkranz, Pat Davis and Brian Wong and sophomore Alex King, with a time of 1:35.66. The 800 free relay team of freshmen Dan Napolitano and James Frauen, sophomore Chris Doser and junior Evan Jones swam a 6:57.67 to break a 25-year-old record.
Rosenkranz went on to break the one-year-old school record swimming the 50 back in the 200 medley relay.
“I was pretty nervous to be in my first shave and taper college meet, but once my relay took the school record and I ended up taking the 50 back record I felt confident for the rest of the meet,” he said.
Rosenkranz then proceeded to lead the way with a ninth place finish in the 100 backstroke (52.59), followed by Frauen in 12th (53.28) and freshman Brett Maus in 14th (53.55).
The best individual finish of the meet was by freshman James Frauen in the finals heat of the 200 backstroke on the fourth day of the meet. He swam a time of 1:54.29 to earn a fifth place finish. Other strong competitors included freshmen Napolitano, Wong, Derek Lam, Rosenkranz, Frauen, Brett Maus, as well as Doser. Napolitano was 13th in the 500 free (4:44.34) and ninth in 200 free (1:43.55). Lam earned 14th in 100 fly (52.59) and Doser was 14th in 200 free (1:45.62) and 16th in 100 free (47.58). Wong had top finishes in all three individual events with 16th in the 200 IM (1:58.12), eighth in 100 butterfly (51.66) and 14th in the 200 butterfly (1:57.02).
The women’s team had strong finishes on the boards and off the blocks.
Senior Rachel DeLahunta finished third and junior Sara Spielman finished fifth on the three-meter earning national qualifying scores. Junior Meg Braun, and freshmen Joanna Wallace and Carrie DeMoulin scored in sixth through eighth places.
The women divers Spielman, DeLahunta, Braun and Wallace placed fourth through seventh on the one-meter board as well.
Braun and Wallace placed fourth through seventh on the one-meter board too.
In the pool, the relays put forth great efforts. Both the 200 free (1:38.47) and 200 medley (1:49.83) relays posted fifth place finishes in the finals. Freshman Lauren Bailey led off the 200 free relay followed by sophomore Karen Meess, freshman Teresa Xu and Ellie Ansani. The medley relay consisted of Meess, freshman Meg Waring, freshman Emily Friedline and Bailey.
Friedline has an outstanding swim earning her ninth place, the NCAA B Provisional Cut and a new school record in the 400 IM (4:36.69). She broke the school record by over two seconds. She was also 14th in the 200 IM (2:12.06).
Other top finishers on the women’s side included Waring’s seventh place finish in the 200 breaststroke (2:27.80), which earned her the best individual finish by a female Yellowjacket at the UAAs, and her ninth place finish in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.75), Bailey’s 11th place finish in the 50 free (24.73), Meess’ ninth and 10th place finishes in the 100 (59.24) and 200 (2:07.26) backstroke, as well as sophomore Farrell Cooke’s 10th and 12th place finishes in the 100 (59.27) and 200 (2:08.88) backstroke.
Head Coach Pete Thompson is very enthusiastic about what the future has to offer after watching the young team compete at this level of competition.
“When we look back on the whole year we had 14 school records [and] four or five NCAA Cuts, which is really nice,” he said. “I think everyone is very excited about their potentials, and not just their potentials, but the team’s and the program’s down the road.”
Holden is a member of the class of 2013
