With the men’s team undefeated and the women’s team sitting at 4-1 on the season, the Loggers’ swim team had every reason to feel confident as they travelled to Southern California to take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Nov. 17 and 18. However, their confidence was ultimately for naught, as the schools from Claremont won decisively in both men’s and women’s categories.
On the women’s side, the swimmers from the Claremont schools put the Loggers in a hole early, as they controlled both the men’s and women’s 500 relays to set the tone of the entire invitational. When it was all said and done, the Loggers lost 203-99 on the men’s side, and 184-124 on the women’s.
However, there were several individual bright spots for the Loggers.
On the women’s side, freshman Samantha Anders (Olympia, Wash.) had a standout performance. With her teammates struggling, she was able to win both the 100 and 200 backstroke to sweep the stroke for the Loggers.
In addition, senior Tracy Wormwood (Elk River, Minn.) won an event for the Loggers as well, dominating the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:31.43, more than two seconds faster than the next best time.
On the men’s side, junior Derek Franzel (Moscow, Idaho) and senior Aleksander Jeremikj (Skopje, Macedonia), led the way, each finishing second in two separate events. In both the 200 freestyle and the 100 fly, Jeremikj fell just short of first place, with mere fragments of a second separating him from the victory.
Of the 34 total events in the sprawling event known locally as the “West Coast Challenge,” the Loggers won just three outright, all on the women’s side. But while these out of conference events tend to be a good barometer for teams, they ultimately matter very little in the grand scheme of things if the team keeps winning their conference matchups.
But despite the shellacking, both men’s and women’s teams continue to be in good shape going forward. Both the men’s and women’s teams will be back in action at the Husky Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 1.
