Garnet Split Opening Meet in Chester
CHESTER, Pa. -- The Swarthmore swim teams opened up the 2007-08 season with a non-conference meet at local rival Widener Thursday evening. The Garnet women cruised to a 132.5-68.6 victory while the Swarthmore men lost a tight battle, 109-96.
Garnet All-American Anne Miller (above) picked up where she left off at the end of last season, winning three events and breaking another record. The sophomore easily won her first event, the 1000 freestyle, leading a Swarthmore sweep with a school-record time of 10:52.10. Freshmen Allison Bishop and Sarah Bedolfe picked up valuable points for the Garnet (1-0), finishing second and third in the opening individual event. The Swarthmore quartet of Allie Jordan ’10, Stephanie Su ’11, Casey Osborn ’10 and Franny Zhang ’08 had captured the 400 medley relay in the first event, finishing with a time of 4:14.61.
The Garnet women had little trouble on the evening, as freshmen Melinda Neal (200 freestyle - 2:02.25) and Su (200 breaststroke – 2:38.25) picked up wins while it was a clean sweep in the 200 butterfly. Senior Jennie Lewis led the way in 2:22.31, followed by Bishop (2:25.14) and Fatima De Vol ’11 (2:39.30).
Miller swam two more events on the evening; she led a Swarthmore sweep in the 500 freestyle (5:23.38) and than swam the second leg of the 400 freestyle relay at the end the night. The victorious relay team (Neal, Miller, Osborn and Lewis) swam a time of 3:51.41.
The Garnet men (0-1) found some bright spots, getting a pair of individual victories from junior Stephen Shymon and freshman Sterling Setterfield. He easily won the second event of the evening, the 1000 freestyle, in a time of 10:31.75, out-distancing teammate Derrick Kao ’11 by almost seven seconds. Shymon returned to the pool later in the meet, capturing the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:59.88.
Setterfield found his groove in the 200 IM, winning in a time of 2:02.66. The first-year collected his second victory in the 200 breaststroke, leading a Swarthmore sweep with a time of 2:15.55. Sophomore Kyle Skofield (2:21.51) and senior John Heagy (2:21.78) completed the 1-2-3 Garnet finish. Heagy opened his senior season with a win in the 100 freestyle, out-touching a Pioneer swimmer with a time of 50.13.
The Swarthmore swim teams open up the Centennial dual-meet schedule this Saturday in Westminster, Md. The Garnet hit the pool at 2:00 p.m. against the Green Terror from McDaniel College. Swarthmore makes its Ware Pool debut in two weeks when NYU comes to campus for a 2:00 p.m. meet on Nov. 17.