Women stroke to season's first victory

The women's swimming team blew out Baldwin-Wallace College 132-105 Saturday, according to swimmers, one of the few meets they're likely to win this year.

The meet came a day after Ohio Wesleyan University left Oberlin in their wake 139-81 Friday night.

At Ohio Wesleyan, Oberlin's wins came from senior Kerri Sutton in the 50-yard freestyle, and Clara Stemwedel in the 500-yard freestyle.

Against Baldwin-Wallace, which was one of the three teams the Yeowomen beat last year, Oberlin had a lot more wins.

It started by sweeping the 200-yard medley relay. The third Oberlin team finished nearly four seconds ahead of the top Baldwin-Wallace team.

Stemwedel won the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle.

First-year Andrea Lindborg got one of her first wins after a year and a half out of competitive swimming with her 2:10.59 time in the 200-yard freestyle.

Sutton dropped her time by .4 seconds from the previous day, though she finished second in the 50-yard freestyle.

First-year Julie Fritz won her first college race in the 300-yard individual medley and junior Hannah Borthwick won the 1-meter diving competition.

In the meet's second half, Fritz won the 100-yard butterfly in 1:09.0, just over a second ahead of sophomore Julie Chor.

Lindborg won the 100-yard backstroke in Oberlin's second sweep of the day. First-year Amy Marquardt finished second and first-year Megan McKinnon third.

Marquardt, whom coach Dick Michaels described as the team's fastest backstroke sprinter, has only been training for two weeks after the end of soccer season.

The team, Michaels said, is much improved over last year's, which won just three dual meets on the season. The strength comes in its numbers - 17 swimmers and a pair of divers - though it lacks the stars it had a year ago.

"We have a lot of swimmers who are improving, but are still not competitive," Michaels said.

This season is only Michaels' second coaching the women's team. The men's and women's teams merged last season after having separate coaches previously.

"I think just having more people is nice," sophomore Sarah Titus, a member of Oberlin's top 200-yard medley relay team Saturday, said. "And they're good people."

This weekend, Oberlin hosts conference opponents Wittenberg University and the College of Wooster. Both teams are likely to outswim Oberlin.

"We'll probably get smashed, but we'll have a good time doing it." Lindborg said.

Dec. 5-7, Oberlin will be one of only two non-Division I schools to compete at the Miami University Invitational. Only Stemwedel is competing there for the Yeowomen.

Stemwedel will not have a full taper for the meet, so she won't be trying to qualify for nationals there.