Feb. 28, 2008
After defeating #10 Carthage and #25 Wheaton, the men jumped 14 spots in the coaches’ poll to #10, setting up an epic battle with #9 DePauw.
However, DePauw couldn’t compete with us and the men demolished them as they had with all their previous opponents. The meet was over by the first diving break and the DePauw swimmers had a look of shock on their face.
A ton of best times were set at this meet and this impressive win gave the guys a lot of momentum going into UAA Championships.
On the first day of competition two of our top guys, Shane Carlson and Sebastien Davis-VanGelder, came down with cold/flu like symptoms so we knew some other guys were going to need to step up if we were going to make a run at top-4. Both Shane and Sebastien competed but were definitely not at their best.
The first day has some of our weaker events but the guys swam really well with our 200 free relay of Sebastien, Alex Stabell, Hiro Hayashi and Peter Visser starting us off on a high note with a 6th place finish and a school record time of 1:25.80.
Despite being sick, Shane still made consolation finals in the 500 free, placing 16th and three other guys scoring top-24: Phil Bartels, Chase Bassignani and Jake Hanebutt. In the 200 IM seniors Zach Ergish and Andrew Kent achieved best time and both eclipsed the school record with Zach making finals and placing 8th, Kent finishing 15th and Freshman Dan Nichols placing 20th.
The 50 free was probably our weakest event but we still had four guys score top-24 and junior Paul Accardi finished 7th in the 3M diving to score some big points for the team.
The 400 medley relay of Sebastien, Ed Wagner, Alex and James Schlabach had an amazing swim, coming from behind to place 2nd getting a NCAA B cut and breaking the school record. Knowing that we had our best events still to come, the guys were pumped for day two to begin.
Day two started off well with five guys scoring in the 400 IM and Zach Ergish and Chris Whaley placing in the top-16. Zach broke his second school record of the meet with a 4:11.36 from prelims.
The next event, the 100 butterfly, proved to be one of our best of the entire meet with Alex placing 2nd overall with an NCAA B cut, Hiro placing 8th and Peter Visser and Jason Azares placing top-16. Andrew Kent swam to a 5th place finish in the 200 free with freshman James Schlabach capturing 10th. Freshmen Ed Wagner and YJ Gahng scored 10th and 19th in the 100 breast while we had three scores in the 100 back.
Briain Young got 4th and Sebastien won his consol heat while fellow Freshman Kieran Deveaux blazed to a best time of 54.14 and demolishing his bonus heat. The night ended with another relay school record as the 800 free relay team of Kent, Schlabach, Ergish and Hayashi finished 4th with a time of 7:01.24
The final night of competition started off well with Paul Accardi once again scoring big points in diving by placing 7th in the 1M event.
Our 1650 swimmers followed suit with impressive swims and three top-16 finishes: Phil Bartels (11th), Jake Hanebutt (13th), Chase Bassignani (16th). Four guys scored in the 200 back with Brian Young winning the consols in a best time and four more guys scored in the next event, the 100 free, with three of them scoring top-16.
The 200 breast saw Zach break another school record and placing 5th overall. His time of 2:08.28 achieved an NCAA B cut and as only .18 from 2nd place. Jason Azares led the way in the 200 fly placing 8th and three other UC swimmers garnered top-16 finishes.
The guys team ended the meet with a solid 400 free relay that placed 5th and was just off another school record.
Overall it was an amazing meet for the guys. They scored close to 70 points more this year and cut down the gap between the top-4 teams. I’m sure if we were 100% healthy we would have been in the mix for 4th.
This season 10 school records were broken and a staggering 52 Chicago Swimming Top-10 All-Times times were posted. We continue to improve as a team and next year will be even better!
GO MAROONS! |
