After over a month off from intercollegiate competition, the Case Western Reserve University swimming and diving teams returned to the pool in dominant fashion, with the 20th-ranked men defeating the Gators 193-69, and the 24th-ranked women claiming a 181-114 victory on Saturday afternoon in Meadville, Pennsylvania.
Both Spartan teams improved to 8-1 on the year with the victories. The Allegheny men fell to 4-6, while the women dropped to 2-8.
The Spartan men and women combined to win 22 events, with the women earning 10 first-place finishes and the men 12.
Freshman Suhan Mestha won three individual events for the Spartans, finishing first in the 50-yard freestyle (24.76 seconds), 200-yard backstroke (2:10.69) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:15.65). She added a first-place finish as a part of the 200-yard medley relay team along with freshman Alli Drohosky, senior Rebecca Pakradooni and sophomore Jennifer Eurich (1:54.83).
Pakradooni would add on a pair of individual first-place finishes as well, winning the 200-yard freestyle (2:04.20) and the 100-yard butterfly (1:01.52). Also claiming a pair of event victories for the CWRU women was freshman Alexa Simoneau, with wins in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.65) and 200-yard breaststroke (2:39.11). Eurich added a win the 100-yard freestyle in a time of 56.53 seconds, and finished first as a part of the 200-yard freestyle relay team with sophomore Inez Moore, freshman Bhavya Kumaran, and freshman Lauren Homack.
The Spartan men swept both relays on Saturday as well, with sophomore Aaron Pang, sophomore John Kilbane, senior Alec David and senior Elliott Kerbel winning the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:40.21, and David, senior Aaron Tam, sophomore Oliver Hudgins and Kerbel winning the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:30.09.
Individually, sophomore Logan Smith led the Spartans with wins in the 200-yard butterfly (1:58.78) and the 500-yard freestyle (4:53.03). Other event winners for the men included sophomore Drew Hamilton in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:57.03), junior Andrew Henning in the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.12), sophomore Ondrej Maxian in the 100-yard backstroke (56.48 seconds), Kerbel in the 100-yard backstroke (1:02.00), Hudgins in the 200-yard backstroke (1:57.87), freshman Brody Schmidt in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:16.08), David in the 100-yard butterfly (53.54 seconds) and Pang in the 200-yard individual medley (2:03.67).
The Spartans will be back in action next Saturday, January 23rd, when the squad travels to Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio to face the Polar Bears and Hinsdale College.
