Yeofish crawl to last place finish

Perhaps the excitement of an upcoming holiday was too much of a distraction. Or perhaps the mid-season slump hit especially hard. Whatever the reasons might have been, the Oberlin swimming and diving teams suffered a disappointing loss when they traveled to Wittenberg University two weeks ago.

The Tigers have consistently challenged Oberlin, and this season, Wittenberg again proved too powerful for the Yeofish. Lack of depth hurt Oberlin somewhat, but junior co-captain John Limouze summed up the situation, saying, "They just dominated us." Senior Paul Pitcher, the other men's co-captain, managed to see the humorous aspects of the loss. "Wittenberg is good, and we are the Diet Coke of good," he said. "Just one calorie; not good enough."

Unfortunately, they weren't exaggerating. The Wittenberg men's team was good, very good in fact, winning every swimming event of the meet.

The Yeowomen didn't fare much better than their teammates and won only four events. Despite the losses, some of the younger members of the team did put in strong performances. First-year Laura Szabo-Kubitz and sophomore Malaika Jeter both put forth outstanding individual efforts in their sprint events and also swam well in the relays.

Though they didn't quite smoke their competition, two first-year distance swimmers managed to distinguish themselves with times that came close to their personal bests of the season. Kristina Wolff clocked 13:16.89 and 6:25.96 in the 1000 and 500 yard freestyles, while Todd Wedge sped to a 12:57.63 and 6:08.92 in the same races.

One of the few positive aspects of the Wittenberg meet was the performance of the diving team. Sophomore Scott Saylor had his best meet of the season, winning both of the diving competitions for the men, and senior Megan McKinnon's two diving wins also helped redeem the day.

The divers have been putting in hard work in the pool everyday and it finally began to pay off at Wittenberg with some of their best dives so far this season.

Despite the disappointing loss to Wittenberg, the swimming and diving teams are back on their feet and back on the road. The most exciting meet of the fall will take place this weekend at Miami University of Ohio. The Miami Invitational is a different kind of meet altogether from the run-of-the-mill conference meets in which Oberlin has participated thus far. At this event, the best swimmers Oberlin has to offer will go head to head with Division I swimmers from all over the Midwest as well as their toughest conference competition. Unlike a dual meet, Miami represents an exciting chance for individual swimmers to go up against some of the toughest competition of their season.

For the team's two stars, Limouze and Mercer, this meet is incredibly important. This weekend, these two swimmers will attempt to qualify for the Division III national competition in March.

About the Miami meet, Head Coach Dick Michaels said, "Miami is exciting because of all the Division I swimmers. We traditionally swim very well there. Last year, we had two swimmers get their National A cuts, that's why we go."

Hopefully, the Yeofish will again distinguish themselves at Miami this weekend, and we can once again boast an Oberlin presence at a national competition.

Following this weekend's tournament, the team next swims on January 15 at Wooster.