The Lords and Ladies swimming and diving teams took on two Big Ten teams this weekend. They lost both meets. They traveled to Columbus on Friday to take on The Ohio State University, then on Saturday, Michigan State University came to Gambier.
The Ladies outswam the Michigan State Spartans in their 151-149 defeat but lost due to their diving scores, where the female Spartans swept the Ladies. Diving benefitted the Lords, however, with Ryder Sammons ’19 finishing first in both the 1-meter dive (266.25) and in the 3-meter dive (249.45).
Another factor that caused the Ladies’ close match was exhibition swims from strong swimmers. According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules, an exhibition swimmer is entered into a regular event but does not score points for their team. Usually, exhibition swimmers are reserved for the swimmers who need time trials to improve. But the Ladies used their exhibition for more established swimmers who ended up swimming better times than those who scored points. The Ladies exhibitioned three individual event swimmers and one relay that would have scored more points for the team than the people who competed for points.
For example, the Ladies exhibitioned Sophia Kuvan ’18 in the 200-yard freestyle, the event she won at the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championships last spring. If Kuvan’s time had counted, she would have finished third, which would have added two points to the Ladies score, while subtracting two points from the Spartans’ score. In that case, the Ladies would have won the meet 151-149.
The Lords did the same; they had four different races where a Kenyon swimmer would have scored if the race had not been an exhibition. The Lords lost to the Spartans by a wider margin, 159.5-137.5.
Strong individual performances came from Connor Rumpit ’20, who finished first in the 500-yard freestyle (4.37.43) and first in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9.33.07), and Hannah Orbach-Mandel ’19, who finished first in the 200-yard freestyle (1.51.16) and first in the 500-yard freestyle (5.03.07).
The day before, both the men’s and women’s teams had trouble competing with the top-level Division I (D-I) talent level of the Buckeyes. In the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) D-I rankings, the Buckeye men are 17th, and the Buckeye women are on the cusp of being ranked. The Lords and Ladies did not win a single event in Columbus as the men fell 75-221 and the women lost 79-217.
The Lords and Ladies have their next meet at home on Nov. 11 against their bitter rival, Denison University, to open their North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) dual meet season.