Rough water for swimmers
Tri-meet challenges team's endurance
By Sharon Alley
alleys@mscd.edu
Outnumbered and overpowered, the Metro women's swim team finished third in a three-way meet Saturday, Nov. 5 at the Auraria Event Center. Omaha took first with 137 points to Mines 52 with Metro trailing at 43.
Photo by Matthew Jonas jonasm@mscd.edu
Roadrunner Kristin Greenleaf swims in the 500-yard freestyle on Nov. 5 at the Auraria Event Center. Greenleaf finished with a time of 6:05.48.
Though they didn't win the meet, the Roadrunners still managed to come up with some strong performances in the 13-event competition with University of Nebraska-Omaha and the Colorado School of Mines.
Metro sophomore Jessica Shaddock finished first in the 100-yard freestyle and freshman Kathy Lind won the 200-yard backstroke event.
"This is the first time (Kathy) swam the event, and she took first," said Metro head coach Winthrop Dyer. "She has a lot of potential." Lind also took second in the 50-yard freestyle event.
Third place wins were taken by junior Jessica Barrios in the 200-yard butterfly and by freshman Chelsea McKinnon in the 500-yard freestyle.
Junior Kristin Greenleaf, Metro's sole representative in the 200-yard breaststroke, finished fifth in the event and cut 13 seconds off her previous time.
Meanwhile, the Roadrunners finished second in two relay events: the 400-yard medley and the 400-yard freestyle.
Photo by Matthew Jonas jonasm@mscd.edu
University of Nebraska-Omaha senior Jamie Grogan prepares to dive during the swimming and diving competition. Grogan won the one-meter diving event with a total score of 215.70 points and the three-meter diving event for a total score of 248.77 points.
Only the women swam in this week's competition. Several of the Metro men swimmers showed to offer support and assist at the meet, but did not participate because Omaha does not have a men's team.
"It has to do with Title IX," said Todd Samland, Omaha's head coach, "but instead of taking away a sport, we added women's swimming to allow the women more chances to compete."
The 'Runners did not participate in the 66-length, 1,650-yard freestyle event. Metro is currently without a woman diver, so, the 1-meter and the 3-meter diving events, where they could have racked up more points, were also devoid of Metro representation.
"Last year, they didn't have a diving coach. No recruiting was done; they didn't care, they knew they were leaving," Dyer said.
Metro was represented by seven swimmers, in contrast to 13 swimmers from Colorado School of Mines and 21 from Omaha.
Metro's swimming and diving team began the season with only five returning swimmers. Dyer said, "I started with three girls and two guys; we've doubled the team."
The Roadrunners' next event is 9:00 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, at the Auraria Event Center.