Sophomore swimmer Emil LaSida of the 23rd-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's swimming and diving team set two school records and a pool record to lead the Spartans to a 174-117 win over 10th-ranked Carnegie Mellon University at the Veale Natatorium in Cleveland on Saturday. The 14th-ranked CWRU women's swimming and diving team also defeated 12th-ranked CMU 171-128 to complete the sweep for the hosts.
Both Spartan teams improved to 2-0 on the season in dual meets, while both Tartan teams fell to 1-1.
LaSida bookended the day with his school records. He led off the 400 Medley Relay, the first event of the afternoon, with a time of 49.24 seconds to break his previous record of 49.33 seconds, record an NCAA B cut, and set a pool record. The previous pool record was 50.25 seconds set in 2000. The relay of LaSida, junior Peter Meng, and sophomores John Drumm and Mason Bencurik placed second in the event with a time of 3:22.05, finishing just 0.10 seconds behind the winning CMU relay.
In the final event of the day, the 200 Free Relay, LaSida started the race with a school record time of 20.58 seconds in the first leg, besting the previous record of 20.76 seconds set by Calvin Tecson in 2020. This time, he, Bencurik, Drumm, and sophomore Ben Borvendeg won the event in 1:23.81.
In addition to the two records, LaSida won a pair of events as an individual. In the 100 Back, he placed first with a time of 50.87 seconds, and in the 100 Free, he touched the wall first at 46.59 seconds. Bencurik placed just behind him in the event, finishing in 46.78 seconds.
Meng won three events as well, placing first in the 200 Free, 500 Free, and 400 IM. He won the first in 1:42.18, the second in 4:40.25, and the third in 4:01.98. Drumm added a pair of wins for the Spartans, claiming the 200 Fly in 1:53.52 and the 100 Fly in 50.98 seconds. Junior Kevin Hu placed second in the 200 Fly with a time of 1:54.67, and junior Ben Zuo was the runner-up in the 100 Fly with a time of 51.24 seconds.
CWRU swimmers placed first and second in the 200 Back with sophomore William Froass winning the event in 1:54.36 and first-year Michael Boelens finishing second in 1:55.81. Junior Alex Waltman won both diving events, scoring 230.63 points in the 1-meter dive and 236.93 points in the 3-meter dive.
For the women's team, junior Gabriella Chambers earned wins in three events to pace the Spartans. She swept the 100 and 200 Free races, winning the shorter one in 53.03 seconds and the longer in 1:55.90. Junior Angeli Paull finished second in the race with a time of 1:57.09. Chambers joined sophomores Eliza Dixon and Claire Kozma and junior Adriana Kamor to win the 200 Free Relay in 1:36.47. The Spartan relay of Paull and fellow juniors Kelly Vann, Kate Menzer, and Simone Vale placed second in an exciting end to the meet, touching the wall at 1:38.71 to best the first Tartan relay by 0.29 seconds.
Kozma earned a pair of wins as an individual, claiming victories in the 50 Free and 100 Fly. In each event, she was followed by a teammate to earn the Spartans top-two finishes. In the freestyle race, Kozma finished in 24.31 seconds, besting Vann by 0.20 seconds. And in the 100 Fly, Kozma placed first with a time of 57.93 seconds, just 0.18 seconds faster than the runner-up, Menzer.
A duo of first-year swimmers took the first two spots in the 500 Free, with Maggie Rose Rook winning the event in 5:17.92 and Ava Ellis placing second in 5:18.42. Fellow first-year swimmer Erin Butler nearly earned a sweep of the distance free events for the Spartans, but she fell just 0.13 seconds short in the event with a time of 10:53.79.
Junior Abigail Wilkov swept the diving events, winning the 1-meter dive with a score of 270.83 points and the 3-meter dive with a score of 270.90 points. She also qualified for the NCAA Diving Zone Regional in March 2024 with her second score of at least 255 points in the 1-meter dive this season.
Case Western Reserve will host another University Athletic Association opponent next Saturday, welcoming the University of Rochester to Cleveland for a dual meet. Diving is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. and swimming will start at 1 p.m.
