Eventful Winter Term for men's swimming

Following a week-long practice in Florida, the men's swimming and diving team competed in their last four meets before the North Coast Athletic Conference championships next week.

On Jan 10, their first day back from Florida, the Yeomen took on Case Western Reserve University.

The men's team was expecting victory even though they had to give up 18 points in the diving competition and were without co-captain senior Josh Davis, who was in India over Winter Term. Fatigue was not a factor, because Case had also just returned from their weeklong training.

In a frustrating defeat the Yeomen came up six points short, felled by a score of 113-107.

"A really tough loss. A couple people were really upset," sophomore Jeremy Steinhauer said. "But it is not really a big thing, the main thing is conference [meets]."

Junior Wayne Miller won the 200-yard butterfly in a time of 2:07.83. Captain junior Clayton Woodson swam a lifetime best in the event, finishing second with a time of 2:11.11.

Sophomore Scott Remley swam his best ever unshaven 500-yard freestyle, hitting the wall in 5:15.58.

The day after this meet, a vicious ice storm prevented the Yeomen from driving to a meet at Mount Union College and so the teams were forced to swim against themselves and fax the results to the opposing team's coaches. The Yeomen won this meet 117-83.

"We weren't that excited," sophomore Matt Soellner said. "It is kinda of hard to get excited when you are swimming [against] yourself."

Soellner won the 1000-yard freestyle (10:32) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:08).

Steinhauer was victorious in the 200-yard freestyle (150.44) and the 100-yard freestyle (50.48).

Oberlin split a dual-meet with John Carroll University on Jan. 24. The Yeomen edged JCU 109-100. For the men, junior Rob Pinson dropped three seconds off his lifetime best in the 100-yard backstroke, hitting the wall in 1:01.61. He dropped another three seconds off his lifetime best in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing in 2:15.

After swimming the 1000-yard freestyle in 10:37, junior Eric Grasha swam his best-ever unshaven 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:02.99.

Steinhauer continued to get the blue ribbons, winning the 200-yard freestyle (1:49.20) and the 100-yard freestyle (50.87).

First-year Paul Pitcher had two good breaststroke swims going 1:03 in the 100-yard breaststroke leg of the winning medley relay and a 2:22.23 in the 200-yard breaststroke. Co-captain senior Eric Nordstrom had a season best in the same event touching the wall in 2:25.37.

The next day powerhouse Kenyon College came to Carr Pool, and blew the Oberlin swimmers out of the water. Kenyon is the reigning men's Division III National Champions. The Yeomen fell 113-95.

One bright spot for the Yeomen was Woodson. He had the "swim of the meet" for the Yeomen, going a 23.65 in his 50-yard butterfly leg of the 200-yard medley relay.

Woodson has emerged as a potential national qualifier, who, along with Soellner, are the only Yeomen who have real hopes of making national-qualifying times according to Coach Dick Michaels.

Both swimmers will find out if they have qualifying times at the upcoming NCAC swimming championships at Carr Pool on Feb. 13-15. The teams have already begun to taper and will shave for the meet Wednesday.