-While most Washington University students were getting ready for their first taste of chilling winter weather this past weekend, the men and women of WU swimming were off somewhere in middle America, DePauw University in Indiana to be specific, stripping down to their skivvies and strutting their stuff in the year’s final swimming invitational dual meet.
The meet featured nine men’s and women’s teams from schools such as Illinois Wesleyan, Principia, Wittenberg and Wabash.
The men’s swimming team defended its 2000 DePauw Swimming Invitational Title and won their second straight invitational of 2001, amassing 852 points and trouncing their closest competitor, perennial rival Wabash, by an amazing 121 points.
“I think we were confident that we were going to do well because we put in some of the hardest training we have ever done before the meet, giving us the confidence that we were prepared,” said sophomore James Prescott.
The women’s team also fared quite well, putting up 789.5 points and finishing in second place, just 16 points shy of host DePauw University. The third-place team was Wittenberg College, who totaled only 539 points.
“We never like to lose, but we had some great swims and many best times,” said junior Rachel Feldman. “Saturday night I thought that every single one of us gave each race everything we had. It just wasn’t enough this time.”
WU men’s swimmers dominated several events on Saturday, most notably the 200-yard freestyle in which WU swimmers Matt Johnson, Brian Hindman and Nate Gosse finished the race in first, second and third places, respectively, earning 53 points for the Bears.
“I think a swimmer who had an exceptional meet was Brian Hindman,” said Prescott. “Throughout the entire meet he was dropping a lot of time and was swimming real fast for this time of season.”
Other first place finishes for the men included Mike Hernandez in the 200- and 400-yard Individual Medleys, Matt Johnson in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles and Jon Vigdorchik in the 100-yard butterfly.
The WU men’s 400-yard freestyle relay “A” team took home first place, beating out Wabash by more than two seconds. The WU “B” relay team finished an impressive fifth in the freestyle relay, beating out five other schools’ “A” relay teams.
WU men’s relay teams also finished first in the 800- yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard medley relay.
WU faces rival Wabash again at home on January 19th and after this weekend’s big victory,
“They are going to want to come down here and beat us to return the favor and get a little redemption,” said Prescott.
For the WU women, the meet was a two-horse race in which they always seemed to come up just short of the DePauw swimmers. In eleven different races, DePauw was the only school to finish ahead of WU.
“I think we have a strong girls team, but DePauw was just a little bit stronger. They have a little more depth in their strokers. I was very happy and proud of how the girls team did,” said freshman Su Wang.
Perhaps it was the “home-pool” advantage of DePauw that kept the WU women from winning their second straight invitational tournament, but the weekend did not pass without several Bears shining in their individual races.
First place showings were turned in by Rachel Feldman in the 200-yard freestyle and Lindsay Wilkinson in the 200-yard individual medley.
“I went into the meet seeded sixth and ended up winning pretty much in the last 25 yards of the race. I love the whole ‘come-from behind’ win. Plus, I finally went under 2:00, which was really exciting,” said Feldman of her 200-yard freestyle victory.
The abundance of second place finishes by the WU women included Sarah Goldberg in the 500-yard freestyle, Jessica Schneider in the 100- and 200-yard breaststrokes, Feldman in the 100-yard freestyle, Wang in the 100- and 200-yard butterflies and Brianna Krull in the 400-yard Individual Medley.
WU women relay teams had a fine meet as well, winning the 800-yard freestyle relay and placing second in the 400-yard freestyle relay as well as the 200- and 400-yard Medley relays.
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