The Case Western Reserve University men's and women's swimming and diving teams placed first at the two-day Oberlin Invite at Carr Pool in Oberlin, Ohio, and third at the Kenyon Relays at the Steen Aquatic Center in Gambier, Ohio.
The meets were the first two of the 2023-24 season for the Spartan teams. The men's team entered the campaign ranked 23rd in Division III by the CSCAA and the women's team started the season ranked 14th in the country.
At the Oberlin Invite, the men's team placed first out of six teams with 656 points, and the women's team placed first out of six teams with 807 points. The Spartans won 23 of the 42 events at the meet with the men winning seven and the women taking 16.
Sophomore Joshua Hernandez finished first in four events, taking gold in the 200-yard individual medley (1:56.70), 400 IM (4:11.33), 100 IM (53.91 seconds), and 200-yard butterfly (1:56.05). Junior Anthony Colangelo placed first in the 100 Fly with a time of 53.63 seconds, junior Griffin Gushman touched the wall first in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:44.87, and first-year Michael Boelens won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:53.75.
For the women's team, junior Kate Menzer placed first in eight events, including four individual wins and four relay victories. Individually, she won the 100 IM (1:02.43), 200 IM (2:13.77), 100-yard breaststroke (1:10.38), and 100 Free (55.83 seconds). She was also a member of the winning 200 Medley Relay with sophomores Lauren Valentine, Brynn Lampert, and Megha Siddapureddy (1:56.39), 400 Medley Relay with Valentine, Siddapureddy, and junior Liz Cao (4:10.64), 400 Free Relay with Cao, first-year Anya Iyer, and senior Emma Guarnieri (3:47.20), and 800 Free Relay with Guarnieri, sophomore Allison Ploutz-Snyder, and first-year Erin Butler (8:24.62).
Butler, competing in her first-ever collegiate meet, won two events as an individual, taking first in the 500 Free in 5:23.34 and in the 1650 Free in 18:21.35. Valentine added a pair of wins in the 100 Back (1:02.32) and 200 Back (2:12.08), and Guarnieri contributed a victory in the 200 Breast in 2:34.01. Junior Selah Dean placed first in the 400 IM in 4:51.55.
Junior Abigail Wilkov swept the diving events for CWRU, taking first in the 1-meter dive with 252.65 points and in the 3-meter dive with 239.20 points.
At Kenyon, the men's team totaled 74 points to place third out of five teams, and the women's team placed third out of five teams with 82 points.
The Spartan 400 IM Relay of sophomores Emil LaSida and Peter Meng, junior Ben Zuo, and senior Ethan Chuang placed first and set a meet record with a time of 3:30.40.
LaSida was a member of four runner-up relays, placing second in the 200 Medley Relay with Chuang, Zuo, and junior Jackson Pollard (1:33.53), second in the 200 Back Relay with sophomores William Froass and Tyler Ahten and junior Jace Creech (1:34.35), second in the 200 Breast Relay with Chuang, Zuo, and sophomore Julian Kim (1:45.03), and second in the 200 Fly Relay with Zuo, Pollard, and sophomore John Drumm (1:31.78).
Pollard and Zuo teamed with sophomores Ben Borvendeg and Mason Bencurik to place second in the 200 Free Relay in 1:25.90 and Borvendeg, Drumm, Bencurik, and Meng were the runners-up in the 500-yard crescendo relay with a time of 4:06.83.
The women's team placed second in three relays. In the 500 Crescendo Relay, sophomore Claire Kozma, first-year Maggie Rose Rook, and juniors Angeli Paull and Gabriella Chambers finished in 4:43.91 as the runner-up. Kozma teamed up with Chambers, Paull, and sophomore Eliza Dixon to take second in the 200 Free Relay in 1:37.73, and the 200 Back Relay of juniors Erica Rice, Simone Vale, and Elishka Bailey and sophomore Kate Trembly finished second in 1:48.96.
In the 200 Mixed Medley Relay, the Spartans placed second, with LaSida, Chuang, Kozma, and Chambers recording a time of 1:39.71.
The Spartans will head to Delaware, Ohio, next week for their first dual meet of the season, facing Ohio Wesleyan University on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.
