Gophers Dominate Knights, Wind Up at .500

Gophers Dominate Knights, Wind Up at .500

Jan. 26, 2008

TOWSON, Md. - Needing a win today to finish with a .500 record, Goucher ended the suspense early, taking first place in the first 10 events on the way to a convincing 145-83 triumph over Arcadia.

In extending their winning streak to three meets, head coach Tom Till's Gophers ended the 2007-08 season with a 6-6 record. The last time a Goucher women's swimming team went .500 or better was in 1995-96 when it fashioned a 9-4 record.

Against the Knights, the Gophers registered 10 first-place performances and also produced the runners-up in eight of those same events before opting to swim exhibitions during the meet's final four events. At the time Goucher stopped accepting points, it had opened up a commanding 145-37 lead.

The first 1-2 finish for Goucher was in the 200-yard medley relay where first place went to the foursome of Bethany Natoli (Alexandria, VA/O'Connell), Alex Deffaa (Glen Rock, NJ/Oakwood Friends School), Sam Sutherland (North Reading, MA/Austin Prep) and Britt Hogstrom (Killington, VT/Woodstock Union) and second place to Noura Hemady (Timonium, MD/Carver Center), Pamela Sobeck (Allendale, NJ/Northern Highlands Regional), Judith Stern (Reisterstown, MD/Grier School) and Sandy Okun (Stevenson, MD/McDonogh School). The winning time was 1:57.90.

Goucher swimmers went 1-2 in the first two individual events: in the 1000 freestyle, Sarak Keifer (Skillman, NJ/Montgomery) touched in 11:34.65, ahead of Sobeck; in the 200 free, Hogstrom posted the winning time of 2:08.14 and Lindsey Phillipson-Weiner (Merion, PA/Lower Merion) was the runner-up.

Other first-place performances for Goucher were by Hemady in the 100 backstroke (1:09.57) and 200 back (2:32.39), Candace Crasto (Tallahassee, FL/Urbana) in the 100 breaststroke (1:15.55), Natoli in the 200 butterfly (2:29.18) and 200 breast (2:57.57), Hogstrom in the 50 free (:26.48) and Sutherland in the 100 free (:59.40).

The following swimmers placed second to provide Goucher with a 1-2 finish in an event: Deffaa in the 100 breast (1:18.81), Mara Baron (Wayzata, MN/Breck School) in the 200 butterfly (2:40.82), Okun in the 100 free (1:02.37), Stern in the 200 back (2:32.86) and  Emily Hasse (Montvale, NJ/Pascack Hills) in the 200 breast (2:58.72).