Women's Swimming Places Fourth In NESCAC

After a long season of preparation, the Middlebury Swimming and Diving teams recorded multiple best times over the past three weeks in two of the most important culminating meets: the Middlebury Invitational and Women’s NESCAC Championship. Though team scores were not recorded in the Middlebury Invitational (Jan. 29-30), this last meet of the regular season gave the Panther men and women the opportunity to race tough competitors from Williams, Springfield, Tufts and the University of Vermont. Two weekends later, the Middlebury women hosted NESCAC Championships, placing fourth out of 11 teams with 1,090.5 points over the course of three days (Feb. 12-14).

The ‘A’ relay team of Bryan Cheuk ’16, Paul Lagasse ’16, Jack McLaughlin ’18 and Brendan Leech ’19 began the meet for the Middlebury men with a victory in the 200 freestyle relay (1:26.07). Building upon their teammates’ success, Justin Cho ’17, Stefan Pla ’18, Jack Dowling ’19 and Stephan Koenigsberger ’16 later touched the wall first in the 400 medley re- lay in 3:35.08.

The quartet of Eric Stanton ’17, Dowling, Andrew Grant ’17 and Leech went on to earn second in the longer, 800 free re- lay (7:11.57), while the teams of Noel Antonisse ’17, Nathaniel Smith ’16, Alex Smith ’18 and Koenigsberger, and Lagasse, Grant, Charlie Nuss ’19 and McLaughlin, each finished third in the 200 medley relay (1:38.57) and the 400 free relay (3:16.15), respectively.

Dowling and Grant each picked up victories for the Panthers with top individual performances in the 200 fly (1:57.47) and 100 breast (1:01.33), respectively.

Meanwhile, Connor McCormick ’18 placed second in the 1,000 free (9:48.55), and Chris Mombello ’18 took third in both the 200 IM (1:59.91) and 100 breast (1:01.78).

Michael McGean ’17 secured fourth place in the 200 free with his personal-best time of 1:46.43, coming in just behind Koenigsberger who took third (1:46.17). Koenigsberger missed the podium in the 500 free by just 58 hundredths of a second (fourth, 4:52.69).

Elissa DeNunzio ’18 (363.15) and Will Greene ’19 (408.35) finished third in the one-meter diving competition, while Greene earned enough points (439.35) on the three-meter board to clinch second.

On the women’s side, Middlebury won four relays in the 200 free (Morgan Burke ’17, Isabel Wyer ’18, Megan Griffin ’16 and Stephanie Andrews ’18, 1:37.42), the 800 free (Burke, Wyer, Caitlin Carroll ’17 and Maddie Pierce ’16, 7:49.97), the 200 medley (Caroline Kelly ’16, Liza MacCowatt ’19, Griffin and Kelly Delane ’18, 1:49.95) and the 400 medley (Claire Treesh ’17, MacCowatt, Margaret Pollack ’18 and Grace Stimson ’19, 4:03.50). The women clocked in podium finishes in individual events as well. With a time of 58.00, Griffin won the 100 fly — the event in which Audrey Bangs’ ’18 personal record of 58.85 earned her fifth place. Griffin went on to place second in the 50 free (24.52) as well.

Meanwhile, Bangs and Katie Aman ’19 swept the top two spots in the 200 fly with times of 2:11.64 and 2:13.48, respectively, and Andrews placed third in 200 free (1:58.27) — just 0.07 seconds off of the second place time.

Middlebury earned second through fourth place in the 500 free, with Alaina Pribis ’19 in second (5:14.84), Burke in third (5:15.02) and Bangs in fourth (5:15.61, PR).

Wyer was runner-up in the 200 IM (2:09.05), and won the 200 back (2:04.88), just in front of second-place finisher Katie Corrigan ’19, who clocked her second personal record of the meet at 2:12.70.

When it came to breaststroke events, Pierce placed third in 200 (2:30.87), while Jen Koide ’17 placed third in the 100 (1:08.34) with MacCowatt less than a second behind (1:08.98, PR).

Coming out of the Middlebury Invitational, the women had two weeks before hosting the Women’s NESCAC Championship on Feb. 12-14, where they placed fourth out of 11 with a score of 1090.5: just one position below last year’s finish.

On the diving platform, DeNunzio racked up enough points to secure seventh place in the one-meter final (347.50) and fifth place on the three-meter platform (391.25).

“This was a team that set out day one to be successful while enjoying each other and performing instinctively. They achieved all of that,” said Bob Rueppel, who was named the NESCAC Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year on Tuesday, Feb. 16 after five years at the helm of the program. His swimmers have set a total of 24 school records and multiple All-American accolades.

Not only did Griffin and Wyer make the All-NESCAC team with their top- three finishes in the meet, but they also broke a total of three school records in the process. On top of their record-breaking swims, Griffin placed seventh in the 100 fly (56.86), and Wyer placed sixth in the 200 back (2:03.27).

Griffin bested her own record by 0.05 seconds on Friday in the preliminary rounds of the 50 fly (25.29), before placing third in the event final with a time of 25.44.

Wyer’s won the 500 free final by a margin of 2.74 seconds earlier that night; time of 4:54.36 in the 500 free earlier that night was fast enough to win theNESCAC by a margin of 2.74 seconds, and to break Middlebury’s record (set by Marika Ross in 2007) by 4.51 seconds.
On Saturday, Feb. 13, Wyer swept the championship heat of the 200 free with her second record-setting time of 1:50.36, eclipsing Nora Daly’s 2010 mark of 1:51.00. Burke touched the wall less than three seconds later to come in fifth (1:52.63).

The Panthers’ 200 free quartet of Burke, Wyer, Griffin and Andrews (1:36.47) finished fourth, and the medley relay of team of Sarah Bartholomae ’18, MacCowatt, Griffin and Andrews placed eighth (1:47.00).

Burke, Griffin, Wyer and Andrews also earned sixth in the 400 free (3:29.31), while Wyer, Burke, Kristin Karpowicz ’19 and Andrews touched the wall fifth in the 800 free (7:36.82).

Individually, Burke tied for 10th in the consolation final of the 50 free (24.40), and clinched fourth in the 100 free 51.94.

Lily Sawyer ’16, Carroll and Pollack placed 10th, 11th and 13th in the 200 fly with respective times of 2:08.94, 2:09.03 and 2:09.74. Additionally, Pierce got eighth in the 400 IM (4:39.66), fol- lowed closely by Stimson in 11th place (4:39.04).

In the Panthers’ distance events, Lucy Scott ’16 swam to ninth in the 1,000 free (10:33.09) and eighth in the 1,650 free (17:41.22).
Cumulatively, the Middlebury women clocked in eight NCAA ‘B’ Cut times, which they hope will qualify them to compete in the NCAA Division III Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina on March 16-20.

“Our 800 free relay is currently ninth in the nation but fifth in the NESCAC... an indication how good this conference is in swimming,” Rueppel commented. “We hope the 400 free relay [will make] the cut. Isabel [Wyer] will compete in the 500/200 free and 200 back, and Morgan Burke in the 200/100 free. If the 400 free relay makes it, Meg [Griffin] will swim the 100 fly.”

Rueppel “was thrilled with our weekend. Simply put, [it was] a culmination of 5 years of work. Our seniors were my first recruiting class and had blind faith in the future of the program[, and our] NESCAC performances were a reflection of that. They [have] led this team to success I hoped for but never imagined.”

The men’s teams will travel to Williams for NESCAC Championships this coming weekend, Feb. 19-21.