Men's swimming dives in for two wins

Captain senior Eric Nordstrom usually doesn't anchor the 200-yard freestyle. But in the Yeomen's meet at Ohio Wesleyan, Friday, he did. And in the event, he touched out the competition to propel the relay team to victory and the team to its first win of the season.

Ten minutes earlier he had swum the 100-yard breaststroke, so he swam last in the relay so he could get some extra rest.

After the rest, he had enough energy left to touch out the Ohio Wesleyan men's relay race to give the Yeomen a .2-second victory in the relay and a 111-100 victory for the meet over Ohio Wesleyan.

The next day, it didn't take heroics for the Yeomen to pick up their second dual meet win. The Yeomen were so far ahead in their 129-97 victory agianst Baldwin-Wallace College that the team swam the final relay as an exhibition. The men improved to 2-1 in dual meet competition.

While Saturday's win was no surprise, the Ohio Wesleyan result was - at least for the Yeomen coach.

"We didn't even expect the team to win," coach Dick Michaels said.

Michaels expected the swimming to be even, but the Yeomen forfeited the two diving events.

The swimmers' attitude differed. "We were pretty confident going in and we ended up winning," sophomore Matt Soellner said.

In the relay finale: "We thought we were dead," Michaels said. The team had stacked the 200-yard medley relay and lost, and Ohio Wesleyan soundly beat the Yeomen in 200-yard freestyle relay at the Conference Relay Meet.

"I was totally out of bullets," Michaels said. "As it turned out, they were too."

According to sophomore Jeremy Steinhauer, one of Wesleyan's best swimmers left early to go to a fraternity formal.

The Yeomen team of Steinhauer, Nordstrom, first-year Chris Bedford and junior Robert Pinson swam a 1:36.05 to win.

Individually, Soellner was a triple winner and the team's star.

Soellner won the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:29. In the race, he was a lap ahead, but he let up to save some energy.

"[Conserving my energy] was a good thing," Soellner said. Ten minutes later, he won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 205.12. In the 500-yard freestyle he swam even with Mike Federico of OWU, a national qualifier last year, and touched him out by .5 seconds, finishing in 4:54.40.

Captain junior Josh Davis won the 100-yard freestyle in 49.68 and placed second in the 50-yard freestyle with a 23.07.

The Yeomen went 1-2 in the 100-yard butterfly, captain junior Clayton Woodson won with a time of 56.72 and junior Wayne Miller hit the wall in 57.33 to finish second.

First-year Paul Pitcher won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:03.94, an unshaven personal best. Nordstrom finished third in a time of 1:06.43.

The team didn't expect much competiton from Baldwin-Wallace and they were right.

"We pretty much blew their doors off," Soellner said.

The Yeomen swept five of the 11 events in the meet.

Woodson swam an unshaven personal best of 54.93 to win the 100-yard butterfly. Miller and junior Eric Grasha finished within .07 seconds of each other to take second and third.

Davis was victorious the 200 and 500-yard freestyle. Pitcher won the 100-yard breast and Steinhauer swam a 10:30.75 to win the 1,000-yard freestyle.

Davis, Soellner and Pitcher are beginning their tapers for the Miami University Invitational Meet, Dec. 5-7. Each hopes to achieve national qualifying times.

This year Miami University in Oxford is also the host of the Division III National Championships.

Today, the Yeomen swim against Wittenberg University and Saturday, the College of Wooster. Both meets are at Carr Pool.