The Panther swimming and diving teams opened their second semesters with convincing home dual meet wins Saturday afternoon against Colby. The women were victorious by a 232.5-66.5 score, while the men cruised to a 179-119 victory. Middlebury returns to action Sunday with a home matchup against Bates scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m.
During the women's competition, the Panthers won 15 of the 16 events that were contested. The Middlebury quartet of Isabel Wyer, Celia Ripple, Margaret Pollack and Morgan Burke claimed the day's opening event, the 200 medley relay, with a time of 1:50.84.
Individually, Maya Gomez and Wyer each picked up two events victories in the pool for the Panthers. Gomez won the 50 breaststroke in a time of 30.71, while claiming the 50 fly title in 26.55. Wyer touched the wall first in the 50 back (28.60) and the 100 free (54.75).
Other event triumphs came from Jessica Lipton in the 1,000 free (10:58.82), Stephanie Andrews in the 200 free (2:00.41), Burke, who won the 50 free (25.05) and Claire Treesh in the 100 back (1:03.33). Additionally, Nora O'Leary won the 100 breaststroke (1:10.07), while Kristin Karpowicz touched the wall first in the 500 free (5:19.54).
On the diving board, Kacey Hertan earned the 1-meter diving title with 225.68 points, while Elissa DeNunzio claimed the 3-meter crown with 215.78 points.
In the final event of the meet, the team of Gomez, Wyer, Harper Baldwin and Burke won the race to the wall with a time of 1:40.99 in the 200 free relay.
On the men's side, the team posted 10 wins in the day's 16 events. The team of Justin Cho, Stefan Pla, Alex Smith and Brendan Leech began the meet with a winning time of 1:39.87 in the 200 medley relay.
Individually, Michael McGean earned two event wins, coming in both the 500 free (4:50.01) and 1,000 free (9:49.80). Victories also came from Jack Dowling during the 200 free (1:49.52), Noel Antonisse in the 50 back (25.98), Nick Handali with the 100 fly triumph (54.26) and Cho in the 100 breaststroke (1:01.30).
Mike Chirico dove to a pair of triumphs on the diving boards for the hosts. He posted a winning total of 266.03 points in the 1-meter competition, while he accumulated a score of 264.75 during his 3-meter win.
The 200 free relay team of Dowling, Antonisse, Nick Schrope and Leech capped off the meet with a winning mark of 1:30.59.
