WILMINGTON, Ohio - The Wilmington College men's swimming team celebrated two seniors in their final career home meet on Saturday afternoon. John Carroll University won by a score of 177.5-71.5. The meet marked the final home meet for two seniors - Aaron Polk and Sha'bhir Thompkins.
"I was truly happy to celebrate our seven seniors today as they are fantastic teammates, friends and people," Head Coach Trip Breen said. "I want to thank them for their loyalty, hard work, resiliency, and leadership. Elements of these last two years were challenging. They accepted those challenges, overcame them and continued to thrive. They have a lot to be proud of."
Michael Phillippe aided the Fightin' Quakers with a trio of runner-up finishes, doing so in the 50-meter backstroke (31.00 seconds), the 100-meter backstroke (1:06.32) and the 400-meter IM (5:19.09). In the 100-meter backstroke, teammates Logan Lippert finished one spot behind, touching the wall in 1:10.23. Austin Reed represented Wilmington well in freestyle events with a a pair of runner-up placements in the 50-meter freestyle (26.11 seconds) and the 200-meter freestyle (2:02.20). In breaststroke competition, Cameron Bolen touched the wall in 31.68 seconds in the 50-meter race and 1:12.60 in the 100-meter race, both good for second-place finishes. Senior Aaron Polk rounded out the individuals finishes with a second-place time of 27.47 seconds in the 50-meter butterfly in his final collegiate meet at the WC Natatorium.
In relays, Phillippe, Bolen, Polk and Dan Klosterman turned in a third-place time of 1:54.96 in the 200-meter medley relay while Bolen, Polk and Klosterman teamed up with senior Sha'bhir Thompkins to finish second (1:43.16) in the 200-meter freestyle relay.
"The team continued to make progress today, and we have a really clear picture of what we need to work on the next couple of weeks," said Breen. "We had some in-season and lifetime best performances. The team is ready rest and focus as we prepare for the OAC Championship meet."
Wilmington will now begin to taper for the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships held at the University of Akron on Feb. 17-19.
