WILMINGTON — The Wilmington College swim teams celebrated Senior Day at the final home meet of the season Saturday.
John Carroll won both meets — 177.5 to 71.5 for the men and 160 to 83 for the women.
The meet marked the final home meet for seven seniors — Cassie Baird, Carlie Brooks, Ashley Carlson, Maryn Herring, Lauryn White for the women and Aaron Polk and Sha’bhir Thompkins for the men.
“I was truly happy to celebrate our seven seniors today as they are fantastic teammates, friends and people,” WC 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). 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. 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, Bolen, Polk and Klosterman teamed with Thompkins to finish second (1:43.16) in the 200-meter freestyle relay.
The women’s meet for Wilmington featured six top-three finishes in individual freestyle events with two of them coming courtesy of Audrey Bibb. The sophomore placed second in the 100-meter freestyle (1:06.72). Anna Endsley earned Wilmington a runner-up placement in the 50-meter freestyle (30.46 seconds) while two Quakers — Adrienne Reynek and Rylee Kay Putthoff — placed second (11:39.62) and third (12:27.04) respectively in the 800-meter freestyle.
Senior Maryn Herring tallied a runner-up finish in the 50-meter butterfly (33.28 seconds). Both of the Quaker relay teams finished in second place as Szuhay, McKenzie Danhoff, Herring and Bibb touched the wall in 2:18.22 in the 200-meter medley relay while Carlson, Endsley, Szuhay and Bibb’s time of 2:03.50 in the 200-meter freestyle relay was also good enough for a runner-up finish.
“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.
