Swim Team Dives into a Record-breaking Season
Virginia Rendler
The Manchester University swim team has spent the past weeks training hard and breaking records. The most recent meet on Nov. 5 at Baldwin Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio did not result in a win for Manchester; the men’s team lost 73-183, and the women’s team lost 58-210. However, the team views this most recent meet as a victory due to the three records broken by our men and women.
Emily Clark, junior, broke the 200-yard Back Stroke record with a time of 2:32:27. First-year Triston Mahony broke the 200-yard Freestyle record with a time of 1:55:01. Anjel Clemente, sophomore, broke the 11 Dive 1-meter record with a score of 365.05.
Manchester University’s swim team is relatively young at only three years old. The swim program is small, but the swimmers are a strong force. The coach, Mike Kroll, was previously an assistant coach and athletics director at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Guerby Ruuska, a sophomore on the men’s swim team, says the team has had a shaky start, but breaking these records is encouraging and the team’s dynamic is supportive. “The energy on the team is high,” he says. “People are always up and cheering and motivating each other. Even during the diving competition, our team is up cheering for the divers after every dive.” Ruuska says that the best part of being on the swim team is traveling and meeting other people while growing as an athlete. Even though some may consider swimming an individual sport, the team ties are very strong.
Being a member of the swim team can be challenging for students, however. Time management is the biggest challenge facing participants, as the swim team practices ten times a week. Often the best time for studying is while traveling to other schools for meets.
Individually, the team members are doing well beyond breaking records. Last month, CollegeSwimming.com selected Manchester University sophomores Annika Barce and Guerby Ruuska as its representatives for the Ohio Athletic Conference weekly honorees.
The next swimming and diving meet is at Urbana tomorrow at 1:00 P.M.