Tigers' Multiple Career Bests Highlighted by Stone's Record-Breaking Perfromance
WOOSTER, OH - At the Wooster Invitational, the Tigers' midseason meet in recent years, Wittenberg started off on the right foot in the preliminaries, with 18 of their 19 swims being season bests and 10 of the 18 being career best times. Along with a career best time in the 50 yard freestyle preliminary, senior Shania Stone (Cincinnati, OH / Princeton) broke the existing school record with a time of 23.94. The nine other Tigers who set career bests in the prelims were Teagan O'Connor (Fort Wayne, IN / Carroll) in the 200 yard individual medley, Sophie Paskiet (Toledo, OH / St. Ursula) in the 200 yard individual medley, Lilly Cook (Rensselaer, IN / Rensselaer Central) in the 50 yard freestyle, along with Bekah Lebold (Mount Vernon, OH / Mount Vernon) and Allison Browning (Hillsboro, OH / Hillsboro), who set career bests in the same event. On the men's side, Tatum Paglia (Indianapolis, IN / Ben Davis) set his best time in the 200 yard individual medley, while MJ Fantroy (Indianapolis, IN / Warren Central), Nathan Rabun (Marion, OH / Wynford) and Owen Gabel (New Bremen, OH / New Bremen) each set new career marks in the 50 yard freestyle.
The finals of day one for the women were highlighted by a first place finish from Paskiet in the 200 yard individual medley, which improved on her previous career best from the preliminaries. Stone took first in the 50 yard freestyle by breaking her record she set earlier in the day with a time of 23.78. The 200 yard freestyle team added a season best time and the 400 yard medley relay team of Cook, Paskiet, O'Connor and Stone took first place overall and posted a season best. In the 500 yard freestyle, Elisabeth Josellis (Warsaw, IN / Warsaw Community) posted a career best and McKenna Clark (Waynesville, OH / Caroll) had her season best time as well. Along with Paskiet's top finish in to 200 yard IM, Jade Paumi (Lexington, KY / Lafayette) put up her season best time. As Stone broke the 50 yard freestyle record, Cook improved her lifetime best in the same event. From those performances, the women finished day one in fourth place with score of 244, a 45 point lead over fifth-place Rose-Hulman. Wooster currently leads with score of 411, followed up by Frostburg State in second with 394 and Mount Union rounds out the top three at 370.
For the men, their 200 yard freestyle relay team and 400 yard medley relay team each posted their seson best times. Tre Wynn (Columbus, OH / New Albany) put up a career best time in the 200 yard individual medley and Gabel improved on this prelim time and set another career best in the 50 yard freestyle. As day one wrapped up, the men were in 9th place with score of 66, which currently leads Heidelberg by 11. In first is Mount Union with 512, followed by Wooster with 396 and Rose-Hulman is in third with a score of 384.
The Wooster Invitational continues tomorrow, December 5th, with prelims starting at 10:00 AM, followed by diving at 2:00 PM and another round of swim finals at 6:00 PM.
Written By: Grant Martin