Sickness plagues the pool

Co-captain junior Clara Stemwedel ended her stellar season, a season in which she broke the women's 1000-yard freestyle record in a practice and reset records in the 200, 500 and 1650-yard freestyle races at the NCAC Conference Championships which took place last weekend at Carr Pool.

After the meet, Stemwedel came down with a cold.

Stemwedel's swimming wasn't enough to pull the women out of the Conference cellar. The team finished in eighth place with 142 points, 41 behind seventh-place Ohio Wesleyan University.

Even though suffering from sickness, the Yeowomen managed to score 25 more points in the meet this year than last year. Even more than the overall finish was the improvement shown by the whole team as 13 of 15 women swimmers recorded lifetime-bests in at least one event.

First-year Tiffany Hancock, suffering from mono, still swam a lifetime-best in the 200-yard breaststroke. Sophomore Sarah Krier and first-year Erin Livensparger both set lifetime-bests while battling bronchitis.

"We were devasted with the flu, bronchitis and cold," Head Coach Dick Michaels said.

Even sickness couldn't stop Oberlin from finishing with its best season (4-6 dual-meet competition) since Michaels became the women's head coach in 1996 and for a long, long time before. This was also one of their best finishes at the Conference Championships.

The team's more gradual tapering for the meet, orchestrated by Michaels, and their intense training this season contributed to their improvement. After several years of trial and error, Michaels has finally mastered the inexact science of tapering down fairly well as the team's better results indicate. Michaels will share his tapering expertise by submitting an article for publication.

"Our kids were sucking the canal water on Wednesday," Michaels said. "You feel horrible while you are resting until the last day[of the taper]. Part of it is adrenaline."

Michaels makes sure that when the taper hits, usually five minutes before the start of the meet, his swimmers are sitting down. "They should be sitting down when the taper hits or they get knocked unconscious."

Stemwedel, sophomore Shana Ageloff and junior Lydia Bright were among the ten Yeowomen who recorded lifetime-bests in all their individual swimming events for the meet.

Stemwedel had an amazing weekend, as aforementioned, she set four Oberlin Varsity Records, in the 200, 500, 1000 and 1650-yard freestyle events. The 1000-yard record was set during the 1650-yard race, while the 200-yard freestyle record was set on her leg of Oberlin's record-setting 800-yard freestyle relay team.

Stemwedel struggled in the preliminary 200-yard freestyle, but broke the 2:03-mark and record in the event during the first leg of Oberlin's 800-yard freestyle relay. The old Oberlin 200-yard freestyle record was set in 1989.

"I had a real fulfilling season," Stemwedel said. "I'm looking forward to next year." Stemwedel finished sixth in the mile(1650-yard freestyle) and placed 11th in the 500-yard freestyle.

The team of Stemwedel, co-captain senior Beth Lowe, junior Sarah Titus and first-year Aurie Cabou blew the old Oberlin mark away by 13 seconds in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 8:29.48.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Titus, Ageloff, junior Julie Chor and Cabou also set a team record with a time of 2:00.05.

"It was awesome," Chor said. "We still have some room to improve. Next year we will go under two minutes."

With almost everyone on the team breaking through with stellar performances it is hard to single out individuals.

In her last meet as a Yeowomen, Lowe broke the 27-second mark in 50-yard freestyle and the one-minute mark in the 100-yard freestyle.

On your mark: Women swimmers broke records aplenty in last week's conference tourney, but failed to qualify for nationals. (photo by John Matney)