RYAN STROTHER
Sports Editor
The Men’s and Women’s Swim and Dive teams each earned a conference victory against DePauw and fell to Division I University of Pittsburgh during winter break competition.
On January 9th, Denison hosted DePauw just a few days after both teams returned from training trips in Florida.
The Denison women bested DePauw with a final score of 196 – 95. The Denison men tallied 189 points over DePauw’s 104. Carolyn Kane ‘17, Marissa Bednarek ‘16 and Mary Van Leuven ‘16 won three events each for the Denison women. Emma Weber ’19 won diving competitions on the one-meter and three-meter boards. On the men’s side, Brendan Howley ‘18 earned first place in the 100 and 200 yard breaststroke events, and the breaststroke leg in 200 Medley Relay. Ben Lewis claimed first place in the one-meter diving competition and Max Levy topped the competition on the three-meter boards.
The following week Denison swimming and diving teams traveled to Trees Pool, Penn. where they faced Division I University of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh men won the meet with a final tally of 216 to 84.
Despite the defeat, Howley earned a victory in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 57.19. Howley also anchored the 200 freestyle relay, ending the meet with a narrowly earned first place finish with a time of 1:24.24 while Pittsburgh finished just two one-hundredths of a second behind them.
Howley attributes his success to hard work and a supportive team dynamic. “It’s not just me,” He said, speaking of his success in competition this season. “We’ve been training hard with a lot of integrity, and we’ve seen of guys step up this season.” Howley looks forward to conference competition, and is especially excited for the opportunity to compete at nationals.
The Pittsburgh women also defeated Denison with a score of 219 – 81. Halli Garza ’18 snagged the only first-place finish for the women, posting a time of 2:05.47 in the 200-yard butterfly. The Denison Women earned a notable second place finish when they missed winning the 200 freestyle relay by a razor-thin margin. Carolyn Kane ’17 anchored the relay, punching a time of 1:34.97, just behind Pittsburgh’s time of 1:34.73.
Garza said that swimming against a Division I team was exciting, but she treats every competition as an opportunity to improve, regardless of the competition. These last few meets before championship season are important for solidifying a race plan she says. These final dual meets of the season are “a last chance to try something new in a race or solidify one last thing before conference,” Garza said.
The Denison Swimming and Diving teams will host Ohio Wesleyan University in the Trumbull Aquatics Center at 10:00 AM on Saturday, January 30th for their final dual meet of the season.