For the second straight dual meet, the Oberlin College men’s swimming and diving team posted a victory.
Last weekend, the Oberlin College swimming and diving teams traveled to Delaware, Ohio to face the Battling Bishops of Ohio Wesleyan University in a North Coast Athletic Conference contest. The men’s team was in search of their second consecutive victory and the women’s team was in search of their first victory of the season.
“We always have a good meet with them. They are nice people, we get along well,” head coach Dick Michaels said of the relationship that the two schools hold.
For the third consecutive meet, the women’s team struggled despite strong performances by juniors Meghan Dunphy-Daly and Jo Archibald, who both set lifetime bests in the meet. Oberlin swam without one of its top female swimmers, junior Nicole Middaugh, due to a rehearsal for the Oberlin Orchestra. Despite some good efforts turned in by the women’s team, they fell to Ohio Wesleyan by a score of106-91. Their record is now 0-3 overall.
“There were some good swims, but we are really short [on players],” Michaels explained.
On the other side of things, the men’s team fared better than the women’s team. Keeping in mind that Oberlin defeated Ohio Wesleyan last year, a possible sliver of confidence was already at hand when the meet started. After overcoming a deficit of 26 points because Oberlin does not have any male divers, Oberlin proved poised to come away with a win for the afternoon.
“It was a toss-up. They have a long tradition of not caring about dual meets and putting swimmers in odd events,” Michaels explained.
The meet essentially came down to the final two events in which the Yeomen had high finishers, which propelled them to a 113-96 victory over the Battling Bishops. “We pretty much beat them up all the way through. We did what we had to do to win,” Michaels said.
In a bright note for the Yeoman, the freestyle relay team of the brothers Betchart (junior Burt and first-year Craig), first-year Thomas Limouze and junior Ben Pierce turned in a season’s best 3:26.06 in the freestyle relay. It is impressive to note that this time was more than four seconds ahead of the same Ohio Wesleyan relay team that placed third overall in the conference a few weeks previous.
Up next for the Oberlin swimmers is a visit from conference opponent, Wittenberg University. Wittenberg will prove to be a tough opponent for both the men and the women with many good performances already turned in by the Tigers. Although Wittenberg has a strong team with a lot of potential, Michaels remains confident that his teams will perform well.
“I think it is going to be really close,” he said.