Nov. 15, 2007
The Men’s Team started off the season with a bang by defeating a tough Wheaton team in convincing fashion by winning 8 of the 11 events. Seven different Chicago swimmers won individual events and the team went 1-2 or 1-2-3 in five events.
The highlight of the meet was how the team kicked off the day of competition with a blazing 400 Medley Relay composed of Brian Young, Ed Wagner, Alex Stabell and Andrew Kent. In his first ever collegiate swim, Ed Wagner stepped-up and delivered and amazing breaststroke split of 1:00.47, faster than his best time, to help lead the team to its first victory. The rest of the guys also had great swims with Young leading off with a 54.74, Stabell splitting a quick 51.99 in the fly, his fastest ever in-season split, and Kent coming home with a solid 48.27.
The Medley Relay win quieted the Wheaton fans and got the momentum rolling for the team and lead to the first ever team win over Wheaton in their home pool.
The following weekend the guys traveled to IIT and took care of business by defeating them 128 to 95. Junior Shane Carlson won a pair of events but the best performance of the meet came from diver Paul Accardi who set school records on both the 1M and 3M boards, placing second in both as well.
A week later, the Men’s Team faced their first test as we hosted our annual Maroon Invitational. Eight other mid-west teams, including DIII powers Kalamazoo and Washington University, attended the meet, which proved to be much more competitive than advertised. After a day and a half of swimming over three sessions, only three Chicago Swimmers were able to win events: Zachary Ergish in the 200 IM, Shane Carlson in the 500 free and Alex Stabell in the 100 butterfly. However, the supreme depth of the men’s team kept them in the hunt for the team title and enabled them to pull way ahead of Kalamazoo early in the meet.
However, disposing of Wash U. didn’t prove to be as easy. Both teams exchanged leads numerous times throughout the meet and the team title came down to the last event, the 400 Free Relay. It was tied going into this last event and our scoring relay teams put forth an amazing effort but just came up short with Wash U. narrowly defeating both relays and taking the team title by only 10 points.
After such a long weekend it was really inspiring to see our guys step-up and perform the way they did in that last event. While we were disappointed we lost by such a slim margin it was a great accomplishment for the team to be in a position to defeat one of the best men’s team in the country. I think our performance caught the eye of many of the swimmers on Wash U. and in our conference, so they should now know that the Chicago Men’s Swim Team is the real deal and shouldn’t be viewed as underdogs anymore.
The Men’s Team looks to close out competition this quarter with a couple more wins as Grinnell and Lake Forest stop by on Saturday, November 17.
GO MAROONS
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