The Panther swimming and diving teams opened their second semesters with a road meet on Saturday afternoon at Colby. The women were victorious by a 202-96 score, while the men fell by a 183-111 count. Middlebury returns to action Sunday with a road meet at Bates scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m.
On the men's side, Zack Einhorn won the 200 free (1:49.28), while Mike Chirico claimed both the 1-meter (271.87 points) and the 3-meter diving event (267.45 points) titles for the Panthers.
In the last event of the day, the 200 free relay quartet of Cory Jalbert, Brendan Leech, Connor McCormick and Keegan Pando led the field to the wall in 1:29.84.
Second-place individual efforts came from Robert Cheng in the 50 breaststroke (28.45), McCormick during the 100 breaststroke (1:01.81), Alec Wilson in the 500 free (5:00.86) and Will Pannos during the 100 IM (56.34).
The 200 medley relay team of Leech, McCormick, Alex Smith and Jalbert finished second with a mark of 1:39.66.
During the women's competition, the Panthers won 13 of the 16 events that were contested. The Middlebury quartet of Frances VanderMeer, Erin Kelly, Maya Gomez and Stephanie Andrews claimed the day's opening event, the 200 medley relay, with a time of 1:50.45.
Individually, Gomez picked up three event victories in the pool to lead the Panthers. She won the 50 breaststroke (31.15), 100 breaststroke (1:08.41) and the 100 individual medley (1:03.17).
Sarah McEachern, VanderMeer and Andrews each recorded two wins. McEachern touched the wall first in both the 1,000 freestyle (10:52.58) and the 100 back (1:02.32), while VanderMeer claimed the 200 free (2:00.75) and the 50 fly (26.55). Andrews was victorious in the 50 free (25.79) and the 100 free (56.01).
Other event triumphs came from Sarah Bartholomae during the 50 back (29.75), and Kristin Karpowicz in the 500 free (5:20.27).
On the diving boards, Kacey Hertan won the 1-meter event with 230.85 points, while Elissa DeNunzio accumulated 241.35 points to earn the 3-meter title.