Men's swimming takes fourth in finals

National Qualifying times and personal records contribute to good finish

The men's swimming and diving team plowed to a fourth place finish in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships this past weekend at Carr Pool, placing behind Kenyon College, Denison University and Wooster College, out of eight teams. This was in spite of second-to-last-place results on Thursday, the first day of the championship.

"In a nutshell, the men had an exceptional meet," Coach Dick Michaels said. "We had no expectations as far as team goals." The Yeomen had 12 swimmers, the least amount of any team present.

Sophomore Matt Soellner made the B-cut national qualifier in the 500-yard freestyle. He will try to better his time this Saturday at the Last Chance Meet at Case Western Reserve University. "I kind of like the [Case] pool," Soellner said. He set the pool record at the Last Chance meet last year and is optimistic about Saturday's meet.

Back in Oberlin's pool, Soellner came in 6th in the 400-yard individual medley and dropped 12 seconds off his personal best to get a 4:13, as well as 6th in the 200-yard butterfly.

According to Michaels, junior Eric Grasha "blew his doors off" this weekend as he swam an impressive and unusual 6 events on Saturday. His parents, brother and brother's girlfriend cheered him on while he placed 10th in the 100-yard backstroke, 10th in his best event- the 100-yard butterfly, and seventh in the 200-yard backstroke.

Grasha said he was "happy with the way everyone did on the team."

Junior Clayton Woodson also had an outstanding meet. He touched the wall for 6th place with a lifetime best of 52.42 in the 100-yard butterfly. He dropped 8 seconds from his overall time on the 200-yard butterfly and came in 11th. Woodson is in contention for the 100-yard butterfly national qualifying B-cut in next Saturday's last chance meet. He was only .03 seconds off the cut this past weekend.

First-year Paul Pitcher placed in the top six in both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke. He dropped 3.5 seconds off of his personal best in the 200-yard. He was also .26 seconds away from the varsity record in the 100.

Sophomore Jeremy Steinhauer had a personal best in the 200-yard freestyle with 4:50 flat and placed in all three events he swam in. He was 9th in the 200-yard freestyle, 16th in the 500-yard freestyle, and touched in at 10th in the 200-yard backstroke, an event he hasn't swam since last year, with a time of 2:04.6 seconds.

Senior co-captain Eric Nordstrom bested all of his times in the 100 and 200-yard breaststrokes.

After three days of championships, a very tired men and women's swim team still managed to celebrate until 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Coach Michaels said this "showed maturity in itself because they left the party in time to make the meeting the next day."

Next year promises to be a very strong year for the swim team. They have a lot of returning players, and as Grasha put it, "a potentially good team if everyone enrolls." For example, four years ago, a high school first-year (name withheld because of NCAA regulations) knocked on Michaels's door, and said that he would be back in four years. He has kept true to his word and is bringing with him scores that are already close to qualifying for Nationals.

Look at 'em go: Carr Pool was packed last Friday as eight teams crammed in for the championships. (photo by Cristina Rudden)