Yeowomen sink to last place

The Yeowomen entered the 1996 NCAC Conference Championships hoping to avoid last place. Every year Oberlin hosts the Conference Championships. Every year the Yeowomen finish last.

After three hectic days of swimming, the Yeowomen wound up a mere 20 points away from their goal. Oberlin finished with 189 points, 33 more points than last year. The improvement was not enough to catapult them out of the cellar. "It would have been nice, but we came a lot closer than ever before," junior Kerri Sutton said.

Many of the swimmers were slowed by a head cold before they were stopped by the competition.. Sutton, co-captain senior Jenny Kusner and senior Kerry Shea were struck with the virus.

First-year Clara Stemwedel said, "It was crappy that people got sick on the day of the meet. It was kind of unfair."

Even illness couldn't stop Kusner. Kusner broke her own team record in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:13.91 to place fifth. The next day, she broke another team record in the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:46.91 to finish seventh.

Kusner possibly qualified for the Division III Championships with "B"-Cuts in the 200- and 400-yard individual medleys.

First-year Clara Stemwedel was another record breaker, setting the team record in the 1000-yard freestyle with an 11:11.47 split in the mile. "I looked to see my 1000 split and I knew," said Stemwedel, "It kept me going, the mile is a long race."

Stemwedel dropped 10 seconds off her time in the 500-yard freestyle, going 5:23.39. Stemwedel came .09 seconds short of breaking the team record. Stemewedel said, "Getting so close to the record gives me something to shoot for next year."

Co-captain senior Grace Davenport dropped five seconds off her lifetime best time to finish 18th in the 500-yard freestyle.

The Yeowomen were momentarily deterred when first-year Sarah Titus slipped in her 200-yard backstroke start. She recovered to finish in 11th place with a time of 2:22.52. In the 100-yard backstroke, she placed 16th.

Titus, Davenport, Stemwedel, and Kusner combined to set team records in both the 400-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay.

The divers sophomore Hannah Borthwick and junior Elisabeth Edelstein contributed to the Yeowomen point total by diving to eighth and 11th place finishes respectively in the one-meter diving competition.

To describe the meet, Michaels used the line he was able to use the whole season, "We did the very best we could do with the people we have."

Kusner seconded his comment, "I cannot imagine anyone who wouldn't be pleased with this season."

Junior Kerri Sutton attributed much of the team's success to Michaels' leadership. "He has been of great benefit to the team and it can only get better next season." Michaels hopes to get a full squad of 18 swimmers, up from 12 this season.

Kusner and Davenport's seasons are not quite over. Both will compete in Saturday's Last Chance Meet at Case Western Reserve University, Kusner hopes to solidify her qualifying time in the 200-yard individual medley, while Davenport hopes to pull off a qualifying time in good health.