SPORTS

Swimmers shatter ten records at meet

Kenyon crushes everyone, including Oberlin

by Jeff Glickman

Ten of 21 records fell at the 1998 NCAC conferences championships and one was tied. Kenyon reset all five relay records, to run away with the meet with 993 points. Denison University was a close second with 907 points, considering that third place Allegheny College received 376 points.

For the Yeomen, senior Wayne Miller dropped one second in the 100-yard butterfly and three in the 200-yard butterfly off his lifetime-bests, leading the Yeomen to a fifth-place finish at the NCAA conference Championships.

"Wayne Miller had the best meet of his life," Head Coach Dick Michaels said. "He just all of a sudden busted through."

Miller's times, combined with superb times by most of the Yeomen were not enough to get Oberlin their desired third place. The Yeomen finished with 295 points trailing fourth place College of Wooster who had 330.

Before the meet Michaels said, "We could swim well and still finish anywhere from third to eighth."

The meet culminated one of the men's team's best seasons in years as the team put together an 8-2 dual meet record. The team was hurt by junior Matt Soellner's tendonitis, which prevented him from three weeks of training in his strongest events, butterfly and freestyle, and hence his competitiveness in the events.

Soellner developed tendonitis in his left elbow during the team's training trip to Florida over Winter Term. For almost three weeks, Soellner was limited to breaststroke, his third-best stroke, and kicking. At Conferences he set lifetime-bests in both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke, placing ninth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:13.52. In the 100 yard he went a 1:01.11 in the preliminaries and wound up 11th in the finals.

"Pretty fast times for not being a breaststroker," sophomore Paul Pitcher said. "Matt had a decent meet."

Soellner missed crucial training, necessary to be competitive at Conferences in his best events: the 400-yard individual medley, in which he qualified for Nationals his first-year, the 500-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly.

First-year John Limouze, unshaved and off a week-long taper, was Oberlin's top finisher with a third in the 200-yard butterfly. Miller placed seventh in the event. Miller also placed 11th in the 100-yard butterfly.

First-year diver Aaron Hillyer recorded two eighth place finishes in the one and three-meter diving.

In addition to Miller the Yeomen had four seniors trying to do their best in their last or second to last meet.

Co-captain senior Clayton Woodson equaled his lifetime best in the 100-yard butterfly in the 50-yard freestyle, 22.60 and 100-yard butterfly, 52.45.

Even with one life-time best and several close ones, Woodson wasn't too pleased with his results at the meet, according to teammates.

Woodson is entered in the Last Chance Meet this Saturday at Case, with the goal: "I just want to be faster than I was last year."

Fellow co-captain senior Josh Davis recorded a lifetime best in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.38.

"He went close to his lifetime-best in the meet," Michaels said. "It was a tribute to his grit."

Senior Rob Pinson also set three lifetime bests. Pinson, in his second season, swimming backstroke, went 59.62 and 2:08.14 in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke. He broke the 23-second barrier in the 50-yard freestyle.

Fellow senior Eric Grasha finished his Oberlin career with two lifetime bests in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke, going 55.53 and 1:59.57.

With five high-quality seniors graduating, next year's team has a huge void to fill in swimming ability and leadership.

Junior Jeremy Steinhauer is one swimmer that is going to need to step up next season.

Steinhauer set lifetime-bests in the 200 and 500-yard freestyle with times of 1:45.08 and 4:47.19. Steinhauer hopes to do even better in the future.

"I just had a good meet," Steinhauer said. "I always thought that I'd qualify for Nationals, if I just went a year without being sick or injured." This year, Steinhauer injured his foot in the beginning of the season.

Sophomore Paul Pitcher was one swimmer who didn't swim his best. According to Michaels, Pitcher had overtired himself and a three week taper was not long enough for him to recover.

Pitcher set a lifetime best in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:06.14 a best by 10 seconds. Pitcher didn't swim as well in his marquee events the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke.

Pitcher hopes another week of rest will help as he swims in this Saturday's Last Chance Meet.

"I never trained as hard as I did this year," Pitcher said. "Going to all the practices (including the optional morning practices), I made a lot of improvements. I accomplished a lot of things in practice I've never been able to do before."

On a five-day mini-taper, first-year John Limouze, having already secured a spot in March's NCAA swimming championships, owned Oberlin's best finish of the day with a third place finish in the 200-yard butterfly. Limouze also set a lifetime best in the 500-yard freestyle.

First-years Evan Cobb and Chris Dudley both had huge meets. Cobb set a lifetime best in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.06, went a best 59.76 in the 100-yard butterfly and 51.33 in the 100-yard freestyle.

Dudley dropped 12 seconds in the 500-yard freestyle, four seconds in the 200-yard freestyle and two and a half seconds in the 100-yard freestyle.

Overall 13 of the 15 Yeomen in the meet recorded lifetime best times in at least one event. The two that didn't, sophomore transfer Brian Jones, who only trained for six weeks before the meet, and first-year Sean Davis recorded season-bests at least 15 seconds in the 500 and 1650-yard freestyle and in the 400-yard IM.

"We had one of the best championships ever. We had a bunch of lifetime bests," Michaels said.

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Copyright © 1998, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 126, Number 15, February 20, 1998

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