The Panther swimming and diving teams wrapped up their first weekend of the second semester with a road meet at Bates. The women fell to the 21st-ranked Bobcats by a 152.5-141.5 score, while the men were defeated 170-118. Middlebury returns to action Saturday when it hosts Union for a meet starting at 2:00 p.m.
For the men, Jack Dowling and Connor McCormick claimed event wins for the visitors. Dowling won the 500 free (4:54.60) by nearly four seconds, while McCormick claimed the 400 IM (4:18.01).
During the diving events, Mike Chirico earned both the 1-meter (286.87 points) and the 3-meter (293.55 points) event victories.
Runner-up times in the pool came from McCormick in both the 200 free (1:46.67) and the 200 breaststroke (2:12.95). Additional runner-up swims were posted by Brendan Leech in the 100 back (55.67), Zack Einhorn during the 200 fly (2:01.01), Kevin Santoro in the 200 back (1:59.66) and Will Pannos during the 100 fly (54.09).
The 200 medley relay team of Leech, Robert Cheng, Alex Smith and Cory Jalbert was also second with a time of 1:39.42.
During women's action, Frances VanderMeer earned three events titles for the Panthers, while Maya Gomez was a winner in two. VanderMeer tied for the victory in the 50-yard freestyle (24.47), while touching the wall first in both the 100 freestyle (53.59) and the 100 butterfly (59.02). Gomez won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:06.82) and the 200 breaststroke (2:29.63) titles.
Additional points were garnered via numerous second-place finishes. Sarah McEachern finished in the runner-up spot in three races during the 100 backstroke (1:01.83), 200 back (2:09.51) and the 400 individual medley (4:39.15). Kristin Karpowicz was second in the 200 free (2:00.98), while Jessica Lipton touched second in the 200 fly (2:16.36).
The Panthers also tallied two runner-up efforts during relay events in the pool. In the first event of the day, the 200 medley relay team of VanderMeer, Erin Kelly, Gomez and Stephanie Andrews stopped the clock in 1:50.02, while the 200 free relay quartet of Gomez, Kelly, Karpowicz and Andrews swam to a time of 1:40.73.
On the diving boards, Elissa DeNunzio won both the 1-meter event (244.05 points) and 3-meter event (260.03 points).
