Home > Sport

Metro men outlap CU in opener
By Jeff Tejcek
jtejcek@mscd.edu

Photo by Jeremy Billis • jbills@mscd.edu Metro freshman Ben Carr swims the men’s 1,000-yard freestyle on Sept. 30 at the Auraria Pool in the Auraria Event Center. The men beat the University of Colorado at Boulder club team 135-122, while the women lost 162-54. Men’s diver Kenny Rhoades and women’s diver Chelsea Bates both broke Metro records in the one-meter and three-meter diving events and qualified for the NCAA nationals with their record-setting performances. Metro has a couple of weeks to train before competing in the Early Bird Invitational at Colorado State Oct. 20-21.

The Metro men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams hit the water against the University of Colorado Sept. 30 in a season-opening meet that turned into a record breaker.

Roadrunners divers Kenny Rhoades (291.08) and Chelsea Bates (273.15) both broke school point records in diving and qualified for the NCAA Division II National Championships in Buffalo, N.Y., in the process.

“It felt really good because it was the first college meet I have been to. It felt really exciting,” Rhoades said. “I was just kind of soaking it all in.”

Bates felt the divers would have scored even higher if they had more time to prepare.

“It was actually kind of a last-minute meet,” Bates said. “We found out about it a week before Saturday.”

The untimely meet wasn’t supposed to take place until December, but was rescheduled to accommodate the athletes’ availability.

“We only had the four eligible (women’s) swimmers because we didn’t expect to have this meet this early,” head coach Winthrop Dyer said.

In swimming, the men’s team won 135-122, while the women’s team lost 162-54. The loss did not fairly reflect the actual performance of the women’s team, as they only had four swimmers competing.

Metro swimmer Benn Carr won both the 1,000-yard medley event and the 200 butterfly, while the ’Runners’ Evan Venrick won the men’s 500 freestyle. Paul Bunge took first place in the 400 individual medley and the 100 backstroke.
For the Roadrunners women, Kathy Lind gave a strong performance, winning the women’s 100 backstroke.

Dyer and diving coach Kevin Sage feel they have a strong team and expect improvement as the season goes on. According to Dyer, if the swimmers are making their expected times this early in the season, then they need to be training harder so they might improve on those times.

Both coaches feel it is a disadvantage to have so few athletes on the team.

“We have some quality athletes,” Sage said. “But unfortunately we just don’t have the numbers.”

The Metro swimming and diving teams’ next meet is Oct. 20 at the Early Bird Invitational in Fort Collins.