The Middlebury swimming and diving teams swept their first home meet of the new year on Saturday. The men topped Clarkson 213-75 and Union 238-36, while the women downed Clarkson 253-45 and Union 237-63. The Panthers are idle until Saturday, January 25th when they head to Hamilton for a tri-meet with Williams.
On the men's side, Corey Jalbert picked up a pair of individual victories and was on two winning relay teams. He won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.97, while he touched the wall in 48.27 in the 100-yard freestyle to earn the top-spot. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Jalbert, Isaac Esposito, Will Pannos and Jake Gaughan posted a winning time of 1:27.68. Aska Matsuda won the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:16.63, and edged his opponent by just under two seconds to pick up the victor in the 500-yard freestyle (4:58.19).
The 200-yard medley relay comprised of Ben Merz, Bryan Chang, Pannos and Gaughan won the event with a time of 1:37.23, just one second ahead of Middlebuy's B squad. Other individual first-place finishes came from Merz in the 100-yard backstroke (54.75), Chang in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:00.58), Zack Einhorn in the 200-yard butterfly (2:00.19). Also earning top-honors was Sam Pelletier in the 200-yard backstroke (1:59.43), Cody Kim in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:16.76) and Pannos in the 100-yard butterfly (53.39).
Frances Vandermeer picked up two individual victories and was on two winning relays teams. She won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.64, while touching the wall in a winning time of 58.54 in the 100-yard butterfly. In the 200-yard medley relay, Vandermeer was joined by Julianna Haensly, Haley Hutchinson and Erin Kelly as the quartet took the top-spot with a time of 1:50.87. In the 200-yard freestyle relay (Vandermeer, Kelly, Maddie McKean and Lily Siemasko) the Panthers posted a winning time of 1:41.68.
In addition to her relay victory, Hutchinson earned two individual first-place finishes. She posted a winning time of 2:26.8 in the 200-yard breaststroke and won the 200-yard IM, touching the wall in 2:12.27. Cantrell also won a pair of individual events, placing first in the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle with times of 2:00.17 and 5:23.25, respectively. Other event victors were Julianna Haensly in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.26), Courtney Grant in the 100-yard freestyle (55.58) and Lucy Townsend in the 200-yard backstroke (2:13.68).
