2008-09 Men's Swimming & Diving Season Outlook

Wooster Expects Another Top-Half NCAC Finish

Andrew Olsen will look to lower his own school record in the 100 breaststroke.

The College of Wooster, led by the talented junior trio of Eric Babbitt, Logan LaBerge, and Ryan Radtke, is eyeing an eighth consecutive top-five finish at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships, widely considered as the preeminent swimming conference in NCAA Div. III, and also for one or more individuals and/or a relay team to advance to the NCAA Championships this season.

“We want to finish in the top half of the conference as we have every year,” remarked Rob Harrington, the sixth-year head coach of the Fighting Scots. “Obviously, getting a national berth is important to us, but so is winning some of our tougher dual meets. Westminster, Ohio Northern, Wittenberg, and Case are all going to be tough meets.”

Babbitt, a two-time cancer survivor, has already reached five career championship finals (top-eight) in the conference meet, including three last season when he placed fifth in the 200 butterfly (1:56.16), sixth in the 50 freestyle (21.41), and seventh in the 100 fly (51.80). As a freshman, Babbitt provisionally qualified for the NCAA’s in his specialty, the 200 fly (1:54.96).

LaBerge took sixth in last year’s 200 backstroke (1:57.29) at the NCAC’s, while also leading off the school-record 400 medley relay team (3:30.95). He’ll continue to make a significant impact in the 100 back and 500 free as well, looking to improve on respective finishes of 10th (53.57) and 12th (4:44.77).

Radtke lowered his own school record in the 200 individual medley (1:56.28) as part of an eighth-place swim in that event at the conference meet (1:56.88). He was also top-10 in two other events, touching ninth in the 1650 (16:52.54) as the leader of Wooster’s distance freestylers and 10th in the 400 IM (4:14.85).

The Scots have always prided themselves on fielding depth, so there’s much more to this team than Babbitt, LaBerge, and Radtke. Complementing them in the sprint freestyles will be sophomores Brendan Horgan and Adel El-Adawy and junior Michael Saltzman. Horgan has the potential for a breakout season, according to Harrington, following his 16th-place effort in the 100 free (48.62) at the NCAC’s, while Saltzman produced 14th- and 16th-place showings in the 200 free (1:47.06) and 50 free (22.41), respectively.

El-Adawy’s presence will be felt even more so in the backstrokes. In his debut season, he came in 11th at the conference level in the 200 (1:58.07) and 12th in the 100 (54.67), while classmate Brett Dawson specializes in that stroke as well, having taken 14th in the 200 (2:01.12).

Andrew Olsen, a senior, is the squad’s top returning breaststroker. He broke a 20-year old school record in the 100 last fall with a time of 1:00.01 and later finished 13th in the 100 (1:00.79) and 14th in the 200 (2:18.69) at the NCAC’s. Additionally, Olsen could excel in the middle distance freestyle races, while classmate Tyler Hartley-Shepherd will complement him in the 100 breast (1:02.27) after reaching the conference’s consolation heat a season ago.

Others to watch include senior distance freestyler/backstroker Johann Weber and sophomore breaststroke specialist Jeremy Bervoets, both of whom contributed valuable points at the 2008 NCAC meet, as well as senior co-captains John Cushing and Michael Kwan, and junior freestyler Jon Quiery.

Five freshmen are expected to add to the mix, including a promising diver in Luke Knezevic.