Kenyon Women, Pennsylvania Men Win Nike Cup

GAMBIER, Ohio, December 2. OVERCOMING a 53-point deficit, the Kenyon College women's swim team slipped past two Division I opponents Saturday evening at the KAC Natatorium and won the Nike Cup Invitational with 1,026 points. Pennsylvania placed second with 1,007 points, Kansas was third with 981 points, and Johns Hopkins was fourth with 295 points. Despite making a run with three individual event victories Saturday, the Kenyon College Lords couldn't close the 152-point gap established by the Division I University of Pennsylvania Quakers at the conclusion of Friday evening's action.

The Ladies took a big chunk out of their deficit in Saturday evening's first event, the 200-yard medley relay. The Kenyon team of Carolyn Barer (Edina, MN/St. Patrick's), Tracy Menzel (Greencastle, IN/Greencastle), Tina Ertl (Halle, Germany/Sportgymnasium Halle), and Elizabeth Carlton (Cheyenne, WY/Cheyenne Central) not only won the relay, but did so with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:46.08.

Ertl kept the fast times coming by posting a win in the 200-yard individual medley. She clocked in at 2:05.58, which was also an NCAA 'A' time. Ertl then added another automatic qualifying time in the 100-yard butterfly with a second-place time of 57.29.

One event earlier, senior Jessica Connors (Cedarburg, WI/Divine Savior Holy Angels) won the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:20.25, which easily cleared the NCAA automatic qualifying standard of 2:22.03.

In addition to those wins, the Ladies showed their depth with more top-three finishes from freshmen Emily Jacobssen (Knoxville, TN/Bearden) and Danielle Arad (Yorba Linda, CA/Tarbot V'Torah). Jacobssen placed third in the 200-yard backstroke, clocking in at 2:04.43, and earning an automatic spot at nationals. Arad added a second-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:02.86.

At the conclusion of the Invitational, coaches selected Maria Mayrovich, of the University of Kansas, as the Swimmer of the Meet. Mayrovich swam a leg on the winning 800-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relay teams. On her own, she swept victories in the 50-yard, 100-yard, and 200-yard freestyle events.

In the men's meet, Pennsylvania went on to amass 1,149 points and won the Invitational, while Kenyon finished second with an impressive total of 988 points. Johns Hopkins University finished a distant third with 608 points, Washington and Lee University was fourth with 410 points, and Wabash College took fifth with 220 points.

Picking up the first event win of the evening for the Lords was sophomore Matthew Harris (Laurel, MD/DeMatha) in the 100-yard butterfly. The second-year Lord raced to the wall in a NCAA 'B' cut time of 50.30. It was his second 'B' cut of the meet, as he duplicated the feat one day earlier in the 200-yard butterfly.

In the very next event, senior Joey Gosselar (Holland, MI/West Ottawa) capped his weekend with a win in the 200-yard breaststroke. In the win, he also collected his second individual 'B' cut time of the meet, stopping the clock in 2:04.87.

Kenyon's final win came from freshman Blair Withington (Hastings, New Zealand/Hastings Boys'). The speedy first-year swimmer led the field to the wall in the 200-yard individual medley with a 'B' cut time of 1:54.95, nearly seven-tenths of a second ahead of Johns Hopkins's Neil Mahoney.

Earlier in the meet, KC freshman Kegan Borland (Vandergrift, PA/ Saint Joseph) claimed second place in the 500-yard freestyle with a solid 4:35.60 'B' cut time.

Brad Test of Johns Hopkins was selected at the Swimmer of the Meet. He won the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events and was part of the winning 400-yard medley relay team.

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