Simply put, it was a very strong weekend for the Wabash Swimming and Diving Team. We started out the weekend with a school record at Miami, finished with two great relay wins at DePauw, and all along the way had tremendous drops in time, many personal bests, and our first national consideration cut of the year. Without a doubt, this was our best weekend of the semester.
Here in C'ville the Wabash Diving Invite went off with Rob Fenoglio and Clayton Craig springing into the top ten on both boards. Rob placed 2nd on 1 Meter and 3rd on 3 Meter. Clayton finished 6th on 1 Meter and 4th on 3 Meter. Overall our divers continued to give us strong performances, learn from their experiences, and take another positive step towards our conference meet. It's easy to see our team is much improved this year simply because of our divers - and we can't wait to see them continue their good times and dominance next semester!
At Miami we walked away with both a humbling and successful feeling. Every swimmer
went an in-season best times - in every event... that was good. A few went their best time ever... that was amazing. Also impressive was that the guys swam well with a great deal of pressure on them. Being seeded 51st with a 1:47 200 free gives you an idea of how fast this meet was, and how hard it was to make it back to finals. Overall we left Miami with a school record, an 800 Free Relay that was 3 seconds faster than last year's Conference meet time, and a B-Cut in the 400 IM by freshman Brent Graham (4:08.51 - 1 second off the legendary Grant Comer's school record). All good signs pointing toward a strong second semester. I was also impressed with Blaine Cooper-Surma ('09) dropping significant time in his freestyle events; 21.9 in the 50 and 49.01 in the 100. Other highlights included Jordan Blackwell's 1:46.8 in the 200 and Michael Belanger's 4:53.5 in the 500 and new school record in the mile (16:36.6). (Belanger and Coach Hewitt in photo)
Miami Ohio Results:
BTW, 3 Freshman, 2 Sophomores, and 1 Senior... as you can tell, this is a young group with tons of potential.
Finally at DePauw... well, I have to say I was very impressed. A fourth place finish with 6 of our strongest at another meet is quite an accomplishment. I was hoping that without a portion of the team around many new faces would step up, swim big, and lead the team to a great weekend. We got that for sure... and then some. Wabash Swimming was by far the most impressive team at the meet in terms of the number of P.R's and improvement over seed time. With so many swimmers at the meet, and so many great performances, we can't highlight them all, but quick scroll through the DePauw Invite Results should cover it. Some highlights that can't be ignored...
1) 200 Medley Relay. We haven't won, or even really been competitive in, the 200 Medley this entire year, so jumping in and winning with a time of 1:39.4 shocked just about everyone. Michael Hewitt gave us an early lead with a very quick 25.7 split followed by freshman Jim Leuck's gutsy 28.7 breaststroke swim. Our second hundred was dominated by Kyle Weaver's 22.5 fly split (wow), and anchoring the relay we looked to another freshman, Jordan Extine, who came through for us with a 22.2 anchor leg. We were in the lead from start to finish... and that was awesome!
2) Freshman Max Rubesch did what was once thought of as impossible... He swam a total of 3 individual events and walked away with 7 lifetime bests! Every time he hit the water, whether it was prelims or finals, a new personal record popped on the board! His first event was the 500 free. Going out in a 1:53 at the 200 mark and finishing with a 5:03 (yeah he got tired!) gave him a P.R. in the both the 200 and 500... oh yeah, and a 4th place. The following day he had 2 chances at the 200 free - and both of them were lifetime bests with his final time of 1:52.7 producing a 7th place finish. Finishing up with the mile wasn't easy, but when we saw a 10:33 at the 1000 mark we knew he still was on a roll. Max finished the race in 2nd place with a 17:33.5, and that gave him two more lifetime bests; one in the 1000 on the way out, and the other his final time. Crazy stuff.
3) Michael Hewitt was huge. Seeded at 2:08 in the 200 IM he dove in and made his presence known popping out a 1:57.9. Next was the 200 Fly with a seed time of 2:09 and a finals time of 1:56.2. Then we had him lead off the 100 back on the medley relay, an off event for him, and he ends up going the meet's fastest time with a 54.2 (previous season best, a 57). How about the 100 Fly? Hmm... seed time 55.8. Finals time 52.4. And when I thought his tank might be on empty, he leads off the free relay with a 48.7 and gets us the lead (which we never relinquish... bringing me to our next highlight!).
4) 400 Freestyle Relay wins the final event of the meet from lane 2! Seeded 5th overall, and with 3 of your fastest 100 guys in Ohio, you don't exactly think you are going to come away with a win... well, Wabash Always Fights isn't just a saying on this team anymore. Hewitt's 48.7 and early lead was the spark plug that got us going, but honestly there were 2 freshman going 2nd and 3rd that made it possible for Kyle Weaver ('07) to jump in with a chance to win it. Tim Deal had his swim of the meet staying strong for the entire 100 yards (a stretch for Mr. Deal sometimes!) and splitting 50.2. Jordan Extine jumped in with 4 teams all around him (and slightly behind) and popped a 49.5, putting us one tenth behind DePauw going into the final leg. Kyle Weaver then catapulted off the blocks, split 22.7 on his first 50!, and never looked back winning the event for us in dramatic fashion. I love when we do things we are not expected to - it's even better when I personally put the team in a position of "underdog" and they figure out how to get tough and come through with the victory. Yup, Wabash Always Fights... no doubt! (Cooper-Surma and Blackwell attempting to look intelligent)
- PHC
The coaching staff is out recruiting and planning out a fantastic training trip. We are heading to Deerfield Beach this year (12/29-1/6). I found a wonderful little motel with efficiencies so the guys can eat the tons of food they need. Carriage House Resort and Inn... a very nice place. We also got a bit lucky this year. For over two decades we have swam at the AquaCrest YMCA in Delray Beach. This year they filled up unexpectedly quick and we lost our lovely 8-10 and 4-6 training times. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy. From lemons come lemonade, right? Well, Coach Rawleigh at Gettysburg always told me to take care of my karma... and it paid off. Just one month ago a brand new 50 meter facility was built 3 miles from our motel and we are the only team that knows about it right now. Thank goodness for Google. So yeah, we got lucky and we will be training at the City of Deerfield Beach's brand new Aquatic
Center. The pictures are beautiful and if anyone is in the area, please don't hesitate to swing by and say hi. We'll be practicing, yup you guessed it, from 8-10 and 4-6. Six Long Course Lanes and Ten Short Course Lanes. Our choice! Bring your suit if you want to get in. Good times ahead -both in and out of the pool.
17 Belanger, Michael WAB 16:36.60