Diving into the season

by Ian Van Anden
Asst.Sports Editor

The Monmouth Fighting Scots’ swim team competed in their first home meet of the season. Incidentally, the Scots were also taking on their best competition of the year. They faced two Division-I schools on Saturday Oct. 29. These two schools were nearby Western Illinois University, and the University of Chicago. The Rose-Hulman Institute also competed in the meet.

In the meet, the women were able to out swim just one of their opponents, as they out swam Rose-Hulman by a score of 100-90. The women were unable to defeat the University of Chicago and Western Illinois University.

The men faired only slightly worse then the women. They finished last in meet, but they did see several freshmen standouts.

Although both the men and women didn’t perform near to the level of the other competing schools, they still held their own when it came down to personal and team records.

The swim team has added many new faces which preformed well at their first swim meet of the 2005-2006 season. The MC fans in Monmouth’s Pepper Natatorium saw the beginning of what hopes to be a promising season for both the men’s and women’s swim teams.

A highlight in the meet for the Scots was, freshman Jenny Lewis, who won two events while shattering school records and chipped in to breaking the women’s relay record.

Two other freshmen, Sarah Christiansen and Sarah Sauer helped Lewis and sophomore Stephanie Chun break the 400-meter medley record, as they finished with a time of 4:24.85 beating the old record by nearly seven seconds.

For the men, freshman Andrew Wilson established himself as the team’s top 100-meter breaststroker. In the meet, he broke teammate Dan Campione’s record for the event by three seconds. Wilson finished with a time of 1:04.03.

Both Campione and Wilson were on the men’s 400-meter medley relay team that broke a record that has stood since 1969. The two teamed up with sophomore Robert Spearing and freshmen Ben Sauer to finish in 3:53.85. This record has stood for 36-years.

This upcoming weekend is a busy one for the Scots’ swim team. On Friday Nov. 4, they will travel to Augustana for a meet. Then on Saturday Nov. 5 the Scots will host Lake Forest, Knox, and Webster. Yes, even the MC swim team is getting in the Knox weekend spirit. Unfortunately for them they will not be able to join the rest of the campus at the much anticipated Turkey Bowl.