Tiger Swimming & Diving Turns In Strong Day 1 At Wooster Invite

Shania Stone Wittenberg Women's Swimming and Diving — Shania Stone | Photo by John Coffman

December 5, 2024

WOOSTER, OH - The Wittenberg men's and women's swimming and diving teams enjoyed great success on Day 1 of the 2024 Wooster Invitational. The Tiger women piled up 217 points to stand fifth in the nine-team field, trailing PennWest-Edinboro (NCAA Division II), the host team, Wooster, Ashland (NCAA Division II), and Mount Union. The Tigers finished with 79 points and are in eighth place.

The day's biggest highlight came from Shania Stone (Cincinnati, OH / Princeton), who improved on her season-best time in the 50-yard freestyle to finish in fifth place. She recorded a time of 24.52, which is the third-fastest time in the event in program history.

Stone also swam the anchor leg of the Tigers' best finishing relay on Day 1, the women's 400-yard medley relay that took fourth place in a time of 4:04.78. She was joined by Lilly Cook (Rensselaer, IN / Rensselaer Central), Sophie Paskiet (Toledo, OH/St. Ursula), and Teagan O'Connor (Fort Wayne, IN / Carroll) on the relay, which dropped nearly 11 seconds off its seed time.

Stone rounded out her stellar day with a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay, where she was joined by Cook, McKenna Clark (Waynesville, OH / Carroll), and Bekah Lebold (Mount Vernon, OH / Mount Vernon). The quartet posted a time of 1:42.74 to beat their seed time by more than three seconds.

Paskiet added a ninth-place finish in the 200-yard Individual Medley, while Cook capped her opening day with an 11th-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle. Clark had the next-best individual finish for the women, 22nd in the 500-yard freestyle, followed by Addy Payne (Sidney, OH/Sidney) in 24th in the 500 free.

For Wittenberg's men, the best finishes came from the 200 free relay quartet of Tatum Paglia (Indianapolis, IN / Ben Davis), Nathan Rabun (Marion, OH / Wynford), Orry Farrington (Waterville, OH / Anthony Wayne), and Owen Gabel (New Bremen, OH / New Bremen) which placed 14th in a time of 1:35.01, and 400 medley relay of Gabel, Ethan Towle (Centerville, OH / Centerville), Paglia, and Farrington, which placed 14th in a time of 3:52.24, beating their seed time by more than nine seconds.

Individually, Gabel had the best finish of 22nd in the 50 free, followed by Towle in 23rd in the 500 free.

Combined, Wittenberg posted four personal bests on Day 1 of the Wooster Invitational.