Trinity Sweeps 2001 SCAC
Swimming & Diving Championships
The Trinity Tigers were able to pull out two incredible victories in the finals on the final day's events.
The women's team traded punches with Sewanee down the stretch, but took the lead for good with two races remaining. Going into today's finals, Trinity held a slim four-point lead, but Sewanee quickly erased that on the first race. Sewanee now held the slim lead (six points) in the overall score, but Trinity answered right back with good finishes and regained the lead by only 11 points.
Not to be outdone, Sewanee shocked the TU Tigers in the next race, running out to a 15-point lead with only three races to go. Trinity answered with its best scoring event of the entire SCAC Championships, scoring 63 points to Sewanee's 16, giving the TU Tigers a lead of over 30 points with two races left. A 77-point total on the next race ensured the victory for Trinity with only the final relay left.
Think that was exciting? The men's title run was more exciting and much, much closer. DePauw absolutely dominated the first two days of the meet overall, pushing themselves to a lead of more than 130 points during the second day. Trinity kept coming, though, and had the lead down to 35.5 points heading into Saturday. DePauw increased that lead to 44.5 points after the 1,650 freestyle (the first event). The next event saw them inch the lead out even more (three more points), until Trinity hit a big scoring event and tallied 73 total points in the 100 freestyle.
The lead had been whittled to only 22.5 points for DePauw. Another big event - the 200 breaststroke - netted the TU Tigers another 18 points, putting them only 4.5 back with two remaining events. Trinity scored 54 in the 200 fly, while DePauw had 49, which moved the lead over to Trinity. Yes, the lead was 0.5 points. 1/2 point separated Trinity from DePauw, and only one event was left - the 400 freestyle relay. Trinity came in with a better time in the prelims, but the DePauw team was very tough, coming into the meet with the top seeded time by more than seven seconds.
The consolation finals were just as important as every point mattered here. DePauw's 'B' relay team held the second-best seed time (second only to their teammates) coming into today's prelims. Trinity and DePauw finished 1-2 in the consolations, giving Trinity 18 points and DePauw 14. The lead was now 4.5 points, and the winner of the final relay would win the SCAC title. In an incredibly close race, Trinity edged DePauw for the SCAC title, winning by just 10.5 points overall.