WILMINGTON, Ohio - The Wilmington College men's swimming team won five individual events and a relay in a season-opening, Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) dual meet with Baldwin Wallace University, but the Yellow Jackets escaped the WC Natatorium with a 104-100 victory on Saturday afternoon.
"Both teams have made significant progress since we started," Head Coach Trip Breen said. "If has been fun to watch their progression, but we understand that that is a long way to go."
Cameron Bolen won two individual events for the Fightin' Quakers, turning in a time of 1:11.18 in the 100-meter breaststroke and tapping the wall in 24.77 seconds in the 50-meter freestyle. The junior also finished runner-up (56.63 seconds) to teammate Austin Reed's winning time of 56.18 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle. Reed also swum the 200-meter freestyle, finished third with a time of 2:05.80 in the event.
Teammate Sondre Haugen won the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 2:01.48. The freshman was also runner-up in the 100-meter butterfly by touching the pad in 1:02.61. Another freshman, Caden Traggiai, won the 800-meter freestyle (9:29.27) while finishing second in the 400-meter freestyle (4:35.69). Austin Faries also competed in the 800-meter freestyle, taking third with a mark of 10:17.25. Other individual top-three finishes include Dane Klosterman's runner-up time of 1:08.63 in the 100-meter backstroke and Michael Phillippe (2:30.58) and John Good (2:31.31) finishing second and third respectively in the 200-meter IM.
Wilmington won one of the two relays as Haugen, Traggiai, Reed and Bolen's time of 1:42.32 in the 200-meter freestyle relay beat the Yellow Jacket squad by a second. In the other relay, the 200-meter medley, Logan Lippert, Klosterman, Phillippe and Good tapped the wall in 2:00.07 to finish second.
"There were some very close races today on both sides of the meet," said Breen. "We have been putting emphasis on finishing, and it seems to be paying off. I am happy with the start that we had today, and am looking forward to upcoming dates of competition."
Wilmington heads to Ohio Northern University for the two teams' annual Friday Night Meet on Oct. 21.
