By Sophia Grabiec
Sports Editor
With seven sessions to face in an arduous four-day weekend, the Shoremen and Shorewomen performed well at the Centennial Conference Championships, accumulating a total of 10 medals and finishing third and fifth. Three school record race times were also broken during the four days of competition.
“The preparation this year was good; you always go back to the drawing board after a season to see what you could have done differently and what worked, but for the most part everyone looked very ready to compete and swam some good times,” said Head Coach Matt Harris.
Freshman Andrew Feeley won the gold medal and broke the Washington College school record for fastest 200-backstroke time with an impressive 1:51.09 in the Shoremen’s showing at the CC Championships. The meet was held in Lancaster, Penn. at Franklin & Marshall College from Thursday, Feb. 22 to Sunday, Feb. 25. The Shoremen came in third place overall, winning five total medals and broke two school records.
Sophomore Jake Brown was also in the medal lineup for the Shoremen and won bronze in the 50-freestyle. He swam a time of 21.01, the third-fastest time in this event for WC. Brown also earned fifth place in the 100-freestyle and seventh in the 200-freestyle.
Brown, seniors Cody Weiler and Kevin Mackenzie, and sophomore Aidan Sullivan won the bronze medal for the 200-relay with a time of 1:34.77.
Teague Sauter, sophomore, won the bronze in the 200-backstroke, maintaining his spot as the fourth fastest swimmer in this event with a time of 2:07.14. He placed sixth for the individual medley and ninth in the 100-breaststroke
Breaking a school record time, freshman Leo Johnson, sophomore Brendan Jones, Sullivan, and Brown placed fourth in the 800-freestyle relay. WC also placed fourth in the 400-medley relay and 400-freestyle relay.
Overall, WC had 517 final points, Gettysburg won the meet with Swarthmore coming in second.
The Shorewomen accumulated five medals in the meet and finished in fifth place. The gold medal for WC came from senior Jenni Clune in the 100-breaststroke with a time of 1:05.11. She won the gold in the same event last year at the Championship meet as well.
Clune was also awarded the bronze in her 200-breaststroke with a time of 2:24.88, making her WC’s second fastest swimmer in this event. Clune finished eighth in the 200-individual medley and aided her relay team of juniors Anna Schmittle and Julia Portmann and fellow senior Katie Gorman in winning the silver in the 400-freestyle. The team was one hundredth of a second away from beating the WC school record.
Portmann came in third in the 1650 freestyle, fifth in the 500-freestyle, and thirteenth in the 200-freestyle. Portmann, Gorman, Schmittle, and sophomore Lindsay Weicki won the bronze medal in the 800-freestyle relay, breaking the school record with a time of 7:50.03.
Placing in fourth for the Shorewomen was the 400-medley relay team, sophomore Savannah Quade, Gorman, Wiecki, and Clune.
Other notable performers were senior Maija Audorian, junior Tricia Markey, sophomore Alex Searles, and freshman Allison Gallagher.
The women’s team finished the meet with 346 points, coming in fifth place among eight teams. Ahead of the Shorewomen was Ursinus in first, Swarthmore in second, Gettysburg in third, and Franklin & Marshall in fourth. This was the fifth consecutive conference championship for the Ursinus Bears.
This was the last event for the WC senior swimmers, leaving a big hole in the race lineups.
“I’m very sad to see the seven of our seniors graduate. It’s a great class and this class really changed the dynamic of the entire team. This women’s team was in 7th when these seniors were freshmen, so we’re happy to see how far we’ve come. This men’s class has been a part of second and third place teams, so they really changed the dynamic,” Harris said.
The swim teams will now take a pause from training and jump back into their offseason preparation following their break.