Langston Hood, Senior Sports Writer
The Wooster swim and dive team played host to nine different institutions at the Wooster Invitational from Dec. 1 through Dec. 3. From Thursday to Saturday, competitors, coaches and fans filled both Wooster High School’s Ellen Shapiro Natatorium and the College’s Timken Natatorium. The University of the Cumberlands, PennWest University Edinboro, Westminster College, Rose-Hulman, Shawnee State, Mount Union, Hiram and Wittenberg vied for the men’s and women’s podium, while Lock Haven University added a 10th team to the women’s competition. Wooster strung together a successful competition, with the men finishing third and the women finishing in second. The University of the Cumberlands swam and dove their way to both the men’s and women’s first place finishes, which is nothing new for the Patriots as their teams are 7-0 and 8-0 respectively throughout this season’s competitions. Wooster’s second and third place finishes were highlighted by many individual successes and scorching times.
One particularly noteworthy performance came thanks to Ollie Bream ’25, who swam a “B” cut time of 2:05.14 in the 200-meter butterfly on her way to a second NCAC Athlete of the Week award. Bream explained what her result means for NCAA qualification. “If you swim an ‘A’ cut you automatically qualify for the NCAA D-III Championships, and you can swim two other events if you have the ‘B’ cut in those events.” Bream added that, “if you only have a ‘B’ cut, like me for now, you have the possibility of being invited to the meet,” which contains “typically, about 30 swimmers.” Bream’s time in the event was only 0:01.14 slower than her personal record time of 2:03.74, which allowed her to qualify for nationals last year. Bream also finished second in the 200-meter individual medley, first place in the 400-meter individual medley and second in the 800-meter freestyle relay with the help of Lacey Mindock ’26, Emma Humbert ’26 and Emma Connors ’24.
Mindock had a solid weekend herself, winning the B Final in the 400-meter individual medley, the 1650-meter freestyle and finishing second in the 500-meter freestyle. Reflecting on the weekend Mindock said, “not only did we do well in the pool, but I also think, as a team, we excelled at having an amazing, supportive atmosphere.” Mindock expanded on the team’s camaraderie, saying that “hearing everyone chant ‘Wooster’ before swims, seeing all the black and gold and knowing that the entire team was standing up cheering and supporting everyone else makes the meet so much better and is extremely motivating.”
On the men’s side, Josh Pearson ’24 delivered a stellar performance to help the men to their third-place finish, recording a first place finish in the 400-meter individual medley, second-place finish in the 200-meter butterfly, while helping the 400-meter freestyle relay team to a third-place finish, the 800-meter freestyle team to a fourth-place finish and the 200-meter medley relay team to a fifth-place finish. Pearson opted to look forward when asked for a comment on the invitational, speaking to the team’s winter break plans. “The break in the season over the next month gives us a great chance to get a lot of practice time in as we prepare for our last couple months of the season.” Pearson added that, “we also have our training trip to Florida over winter break, which is a great opportunity to both improve as swimmers and bond as a team.”
Pearson’s relay teammate Doak Schultz ’23, also delivered a pivotal performance as he swam his way to a second place in the 100-meter individual medley, sixth place in the 50-meter freestyle and a 400-meter freestyle relay victory with the help of fellow Scots Noah Golovan ’23, Aiden Lentz ’25 and Will Laymon ’26. Schultz also recorded the fastest mixed 100-meter breaststroke in the time trial.
The 400-meter medley team also featured Callum Glover ’26, who was very pleased with the Wooster performance saying, “the energy was the best of any meet I have ever been to; if someone was not swimming, they were most likely standing at an end of the lane yelling for whoever was in the water.”
Ryan Gross ’25 focused on the message that Wooster sent to their conference foes, as Hiram and Wittenberg amassed a mere 889 points from their four teams. For comparison, Wooster’s women’s team scored 1575 points and their men’s team scored 1208.5 points. Meanwhile, Hiram’s men’s team finished eighth, trailing only Wittenberg’s men. Additionally, Hiram’s women finished eighth just in front of Lock Haven and Wittenberg, respectively.
Noah Fox ’23 recapped the weekend best saying, “We went to war….we survived.”
The Fighting Scots will return to the pool at Baldwin Wallace University on Saturday, Jan. 14!
The Wooster Voice 