Both the Catawba men's and women's swim teams took wins over host Pfeiffer on Saturday afternoon at Merner Pool. The men claimed a 147-133 victory, while the women's meet went down to the last event before Catawba secured a 134-128 victory.
Catawba entered the final event of the women's meet, the 400 freestyle relay, holding a slim 123-122 lead and needing a win to claim the overall victory. The team of Katia Kruglov (Karmiel, ISRAEL/Ort Kramim), Paula Garcia (Madrid, SPAIN/IES Diego Velazquez), Palmer Benson (Mocksville, N.C./Davie Co. HS) and Anna Barnes (Suwanee, Ga./N. Gwinett HS/Darton St.) did just that, winning by 22 seconds in a time of 3:16.30. Kruglov put the ladies out to a 10 second lead after the first leg and after Pfeiffer trimmed two seconds off the margin over the next two legs, Barnes extended the lead with a 57.19 final leg to more than double the advantage by the finish.
Kruglov also swam to individual wins in the 100 back (1:00.81) and the 200 back (2:12.75). Barnes picked up a win in the 500 free (5:23.67). Amy Cujas (Mocksville, N.C./Forsyth Country Day) took first in the 50 free (25.13) and Nadine Brockmann (Hamburg, GERMANY/Ossietzsky) grabbed a win in the 100 free (54.31). Catawba got off to a lead in the meet with a win the 200 IM by Kruglov, Janin Kassner (Giesen, GERMANY/Andreanum), Brockmann and Cujas.
Barnes was second to Brockmann in the 100 free and also was second in the 500 free. Kassner was second in both the 100 and 200 breast, Garcia went second to Kruglov in the 200 back and Brockmann was second in the 200 IM. Freshman Jess Daniel (Jamestown, N.C./SW Guilford HS) notched a personal best in the 200 fly (2:20.02) and Ellery Carson (Lexington, N.C./C. Davidson HS) had a PB in the 200 breast (3:02.74).
Theo Zatterstrom (Stockholm, SWEDEN/Fryshuset) posted three individual wins for the men and led off the winning 400 free relay. The senior took first in the 200 fly (1:57.75), the 100 free (48.62) and the 100 fly (51.99) in a personal best time. He joined with Toomas Goutt (Saint Witz, FRANCE/de Vinci), Dominik Brus (Krakow, POLAND/Loms Krakow) and Jevgenij Gamper (Vilnius, LITHUANIA/Kachialov) in the 400 free relay to win in a time of 3:16.30.
Brus, Gamper and McCollister each added two individual wins during the meet. Brus won the 100 back (52.24) and the 200 back (1:53.99), while Gamper took the 100 breast 58.01) and the 200 breast (2:07.99). McCollister earned his wins in the 1000 free (10:12.71) and 500 free (4:55.85). Goutt had the other win for Catawba which came in the 200 free (1:44.84).
Goutt went second in the 50 free (22.30) with Gamper posting a second in the 200 IM (2:02.12). Also earning second-place swims were Rafal Baran (Trzebinia, POLAND/Loms Krakow) in the 200 fly (1:59.01) and Finn Furstenwerth (Hamburg, GERMANY/Gymnasium Farmsen) in the 200 free (1:49.45) which gave the Indians 1-2 finishes in both events. Arnold Blohme (Daphne, Ala./Fairhope HS) had PB swims in the 100 back (57.25) and the 500 free (5:28.27).
The swim team will back in the pool at a Quad Meet in Charlotte on November 7-8.
