Monmouth men’s swim team: winners in water

By: Ian Van Anden
Sports Editor

The Fighting Scots swim team dove head first into their 2006-2007 season on Friday, Oct. 27, in their opening meet at Millikin University.

On the men’s side the Scots dominated Millikin winning 185-67.

Monmouth won all but one of the 14 events at the meet. Junior newcomer Kurt Niemeier was the anchor on MC’s two winning relay teams and also won two individual events. Neimeir won the 500m and 200m freestyle events.

The men’s team is heavily laden with freshmen. The new class of swimmers has amped up the team’s expectations. Seven events were won by Monmouth freshmen. Highlighting the freshman class’ dominance were John Kaiser and Jonathan Peterson. Peterson won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events. Kaiser was equally impressive in the butterfly events, winning the 100m and 200m butterfly.

MC’s top returning swimmer from last year is junior Dan Campione. He led off for both the Scots’ winning relay teams. The junior helped MC gain a victory in the 200m medley relay and in the 400m freestyle relay. He also won the 100m backstroke event and finished second in the 100m freestyle.

The team is off to a fast start this season, and has its sights set on another improved year. In the 2005-2006 season, the Scots placed fifth in the Midwest Conference. The team hopes to step up this year and become one of the conference’s powerhouse schools. With such a young and talented roster, it may be a few years before the Scots’ goal is realized but the future is bright.

The women were not as successful against Millikin on Oct. 27. The women lost their opening meet 76-176. The team only has eight members on its roster and no seniors. The three juniors on the roster are Jessica DeMink, Heather Plum and Megan Wentzlaff. These three have been thrust into leadership positions due to the size and youth of the team.

Luckily, fifth year senior Erin Jole has been able to stick around despite losing her collegiate eligibility. Jole, who swam for the Scots last year, has returned to the pool deck as an assistant coach under Keith Crawford. Jole’s experience and guidance should help the team through the season.

The bright spot for the women’s team was freshman Leigh Anne Lane. Lane finished first in three separate events. Her events were the only three that in which Scots placed first.

In the 100m backstroke, Lane captured first place with a time of 1:05.13, beating her closest opponent by four seconds. She followed up that performance with a time of 1:02.47 in the 100m butterfly, another event in which she placed first. Again, in the butterfly, Lane beat her closest opponent by over four seconds. In her final event of the day, she finished first in the 200m individual medley an event she won by nearly seven seconds.

Both the men’s and women’s swim teams will compete at Lake Forest College on Friday, Nov. 3, for meets against Lake Forest and Lawrence. The men hope to continue their early season success while the women will look to prevent a bumpy start from getting even worse.