Times trimmed at Kenyon Fast Chance

Times trimmed at Kenyon Fast Chance | Wikimedia by North Charleston, SC, United States

By Press release submission

Feb 21, 2023

GAMBIER, Ohio -- Saturday's Fast Chance Meet in Kenyon College's Steen Aquatics Center was all about dialing up NCAA 'B' cuts or improving on already-established cuts to better jockey for position when it comes to qualifying for the NCAA Division III Championship meet.

Eleven other teams joined the Kenyon women's team in the pool for a standard session of swimming events that was sandwiched by two sessions of time trials.

No Kenyon swimmer cranked out better results than junior Sydney Buchman. She came into the meet with season-best times of 1:04.83 and 2:22.39 in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events, respectively. During the standard session of the meet, she sliced into those times significantly, posting a 1:04.03 in the 100 and a 2:20.86 in the 200. Both of those faster times got Buchman into the NCAA 'B' cut qualifying range. Later, in a time trial session, Buchman carved off another chunk of time in the 100, clocking in at 1:03.98.

In the same 100-yard breaststroke event that Buchman swam in early in the meet, teammate and first-year Jean Cook also jumped into 'B' cut territory taking her previous best of 1:04.79 and dropping it to a 1:04.09. In time trials, Cook took more than a second off her 200-yard breaststroke time, but fell short of turning that into another 'B' cut.

The 400-yard individual medley proved to be another fruitful event for the Owls. During the standard session, sophomore Jordan Herrera already had a 'B' cut of 4:25.83, but she lowered that to a 4:24.54. In time trials for the same event, juniors Sarah Hoffman and Anna Clare Fleenor got their times under the 'B' cut. Hoffman finished in 4:27.66, while Fleenor stopped the clock at 4:27.98. Fleenor also improved her time in the 200-yard breaststroke to a 2:22.87, but that did not clear the NCAA's 'B' standard.

Other Kenyon swimmers who made improvements, but just missed hitting a 'B' cut were Maggie Foight in the 100-yard backstroke (1:04.05), Gwen Eisenbeis in the 100-yard freestyle (52.65) and Vasiliki Manakou in the 200-yard backstroke (2:09.01).

Kenyon swimmers will now await word from the NCAA about those qualifying for the Championship, which will take place March 15-18 in Greensboro, North Carolina.