Swimming and Diving Gets Ready For Nescacs

The Middlebury Panther Swimming & Diving Squads suffered one loss and gained a win in their tri-meet with the Hamilton Continentals and Williams Ephs on Saturday, Jan. 27, at Williams. Both teams lost to Williams, the men 189-94, and the women, 177-114. Against the Continentals, both the men’s and women’s teams claimed a victory, 206-78 and 209.5-84.5, respectively.

Mike Chirico ’20 continued his successful season with a first-place finish on the boards in the 1-meter and 3-meter events, with 287.25 and 284.32 points. Chirico was the only male Panther to win two events for the squad.

The other individual victory on the men’s side came from Will Pannos ’20 in the 100 butterfly (54.15).

The men accounted for many second-place finishes, as Nick Handali ’20 of the panthers touched the wall behind Pannos in the 100 butterfly in a time of 54.21. Morgan Matsuda ’19 and Connor McCormick ’18 were also second on the podium for their events. Matsuda was second in the 500 free with a time of 4:58.34, while McCormick touched the wall second in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.30).

Two Panthers also won on the women’s side on Saturday. Frances VanderMeer ’20 claimed an individual victory in the 50 butterfly (26.43). VanderMeer, along with Sarah McEachern ‘21, who won the 100 individual medley in 1:05.99, controlled the day for the Panther team. VanderMeer contributed further with her second-place finish in the 50 backstroke (27.54).

The 200 free relay team for the Panthers, consisting of VanderMeer, Erin Kelly ‘21, Stephanie Andrews ‘18, and Maya Gomez ‘20, touched the wall first in a time of 1:40.37.

Second-place swimming finishes came from VanderMeer in the 50 backstroke, Gomez in the 50 and 100 breaststroke (31.73, 1:09.54), and Kelly Delane ’18 in the 50 fly (28.15). Elissa DeNunzio ‘18 took second-place in both the 1-meter (255.30) and 3-meter (246.97) diving events.

More recently, in an unscored meet with Williams, Tufts, University of Vermont, and Springfield, on February 2nd and 3rd, the Panthers competed to prepare for their upcoming NESCAC championships, which will start off in a few weeks.

Stephanie Andrews and Maya Gomez successfully conquered the competition in their individual events, Andrews placing first in the 50 free in 24.46, Gomez in the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.83. The 800-yard freestyle relay team, made up of Andrews, VanderMeer, Georgia Houde ’20, and Angela Riggins ’19, also placed first with a time of 7:57.06.

Connor McCormick, the lone top-place finisher for the men’s team, beat his competition in the 100 breaststroke to win with a time of 59.43.

This weekend, the women will travel to Williams again to compete at the NESCAC championships on Friday to Sunday, Feb. 16 to 18. The men have the weekend off before making their way to Bowdoin for the Nescac championships from Feb. 23 to 25.