The Oberlin College swimmers sprinted into the North Coast Athletic Conference swimming and diving Championships with the hopes of building upon last year’s medicore performance.

A season ago, both the men’s and women’s teams finished in last place, the men had 459 points while the women amassed 374. This year, clear improvements were made as the men jumped two places in the standings to finish seventh out of nine conference teams. Although the women still finished in last place, they earned 32 more points than they did a season ago.

Assistant coach Mark Fino said that “the coaching staff is pleased” with the results the team produced.

Both teams had a plethora of impressive individual performances. Senior Burt Betchart ended his Oberlin career with a flurry as he was responsible for three of Oberlin’s top ten finishes. Betchart had two sixth- place finishes, one in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 53.88 and one in the 1:57.31 200-yard backstroke. He also placed seventh in the 200 yard individual medley with a time of 1:57.60.

Junior Ben Pierce and sophomore Thomas Limouze’s strong showings in various freestyle events was mirrored across the team according to Fino.

“Everyone swam above expectations,” he said.

Limouze, in tenth place, bettered Pierce by two places in the 500- yard freestyle. They completed it in times of 4:47.92 and 4:53.87 respectively. Pierce came back to out duel Limouze in the 200-yard freestyle. Pierce had an outstanding race, finishing in fourth place at 1:43.95. Limouze was not far behind with a time of 1:49.36, good enough for 17th best in the conference.

Limouze had the last word as he beat Pierce in the longest event of the meet, the 1650-yard freestyle. Limouze received sixth place by swimming the 66-length race in 16:48.94. Pierce, two places behind Limouze, had a time of 17:10.88. Sophomore Zachary Kaplan-Moss helped to make this one of the teams strongest events, earning 12th place in 17:26.61.

Other top 20 finishers for the Yeomen were sophomores Craig Betchart and Yorgos Strangas and juniors Joel Ketner and Gabo Golden.

The Yeowomen were lead by senior Adrienne Zoller. She was the only Yeowoman swimmer to finish in the top ten. In the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke, Zoller had two eighth place finishes with times of 1:11.36 and 2:34.16 respectively.

Both breaststroke events were strengths for the team. Finishing in 12th, 13th and 16th place respectively in the 100 yard breaststroke were first-year Kim Meinert, 1:14.35, senior Nikki Middaugh, 1:14.42 and senior co-captain Meagan Dunphy-Daly.

In the 200-yard breaststroke, Dunphy-Daly, 2:41.71 and Middaugh, 2:41.84, finished just behind Zoller in 13th and 14th place.

The one other event in which the Yeowomen placed multiple swimmers in the top 20 was the 1650 yard freestyle. Senior Lindsay Martin-McCormick finished in 19:27.59 for 18th place, while first-year Kate Boyd received 19th place with a time of 19:29.34.

Both teams will look toward next year as they plan on building upon this three-day championship meet. [The humorous and talented Limouze realized mistakes from this past year of which he can improve for next year.] “I was told by coaches I was too fat” said a grinning Limouze.

The team can look forward to seeing a slimmed-down Limouze winning a conference championship in the near future. “My off-season goal is to lose weight[I am] already getting ready for next year.”