2012-13 College Swimming & Diving Honors
Kenyon Ladies vs. Denison Big Red by Syd Lindblom & Rachel Flinn Walking into a new pool can be exciting and intimidating. Those emotions are only amplified when: 1) it is your rival's brand-new facility, 2) aforementioned rivals have t-shirts made proclaiming the event the "Rumble in Trumbull", and 3) they are awaiting your arrival - stretching with their customary wooden dowels. Even so the Ladies were ready and excited to compete at Denison’s new aquatic center in Fall 2012. They had had a great and challenging month of training and were feeling light and loose as they stepped on deck to Taylor Swift blasting on the loudspeaker. The meet started off very efficiently for the Ladies. Freshmen Katie Kaestner and Haley Townsend helped carry the 200 Medley relay to a first place finish and showed that our freshmen were a forced to be reckoned with. Mariah Williamson, another freshman, continued that momentum by winning the 1000 with an impressive10:25.39. The 100 backstroke, one of the Ladies' strongest events, came next. Unfortunately the race began with an awkward false start that confused the field and forced the coaches to re-schedule the event for later in the competition. After a short break, Celia Oberholzer pulled through to win the event, followed by Rachel Flinn in 3rd and Kate Haller in 5th. Katie Kaestner continued to prove herself as a crucial component of the team by winning the 100 breaststroke.
During the first diving competition (which lasted well over 45 minutes), the Ladies got to see their brand new diving team in action for the first time. To say that they were impressed by freshman Maria Zarka's winning performance on the 1 mtr is an understatement. And in their first ever dual meet, Megan Remillard and Emily Bulik-Sullivan also displayed how well their hard work was paying off by coming in 4th and 5th respectively. The 100 freestyle continued Kenyon's momentum as Hillary Yarosh finished in 1st with a 52.55, and Haley Townsend had an exciting race against her competition that resulted in a tie for second. Even with Kenyon's fast start the meet was close the entire way. As a team, they began to fall behind after the 500 free, where training partners Syd Lindblom and Kiersten Bell were only able to pull in a 3rd and 4th place with their almost identical times of 5:14. However, there is no better way to get back in the game than watching Hannah Saiz do what she does best and win the 100 butterfly with a 56.91, one of the Ladies first B-cuts of the season. After another diving competition that saw Maria Zarka come in 2nd place, the Ladies' 400 IM crew was behind the blocks and ready to go. The meet was stretching past the 3 hour mark (an eternity for a 2-team dual meet), and many of the Ladies were ready for their final races. However, a technical issue turned all of the lights out moments before the
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race was supposed to begin, delaying the meet further. Rather than waiting any longer for the lights to fully turn back on, the coaches decided to swim the event in half light as the lights reset. Despite this set-back, the Ladies raced well and posted times comparable to their practices the week prior. Everyone knew that the final relay--200 free relay--was going to be close. The Ladies and Big Red did not disappoint in finishing the meet in a race worthy of teams considered to be rivals. Although Hillary Yarosh anchored the relay with an exciting 23.93, it was not enough to catch Big Red, who out-touched them by less than a second. The Ladies did not enter the meet expecting to win--they arrived ready to swim against their best competitors and make the meet as close as they could. And close it was; after four long hours, the meet ended up being a two point meet, 149.5 Denison to 147.5 Kenyon. Despite the loss, the Ladies were content with their performances; plus, a song and laughter filled drive to and from Denison proved how close the Ladies had become during the previous month of training. writer bios listed on page 33