Swimming is an individual competition. Nothing but one man and the water ahead of him in a race against the clock; a struggle to perform against time. Gary Hall Jr., Mark Spitz, and this year’s Olympic giant Ian Thorpe; individuals who have made the sport so exciting and popular with the kids. Unfortunately, swimming is a team sport here.

The Pomona-Pitzer men’s swim team was met with yet another loss this past Saturday as they squared off against the overwhelmingly blonde CMS Stags. It was their third consecutive SCIAC loss of the season that has seen them win only against the nerds of Caltech.

The men’s swim team, once known as the men’s swimming and diving team, once again faces a sheer lack of numbers. With a squad of between only eight and ten members and no divers, the status of the men’s roster is a day to day matter for Coach Gary Troyer to handle. "We’re really missing Ian (Cooley ’02) in the freestyle sprint events and Mikey (Gaertner ’02) in backstroke, both of whom are taking the season off," explained Marc Cavagolo ’01. Austin Anderson ’03 also has taken the semester off due to an injury suffered over Winter Break, leaving Matt Mester PI ’02 as the team’s only breaststroker. This has left the team with some important positions unfilled.

However, a shortened roster has allowed for several freshmen to step up on the blocks and show what they’re made of. Freshmen Thomas Krebs, Eric Kort and Benjamin Blum have all contributed their part to the team’s limited success thus far. All three are expected to be key members of the team in the future.

The season has not been in vain, as certain individuals have been concentrating on their personal performance. Understanding that their lack of numbers would certainly be an insurmountable roadblock to victory in the meet against CMS, several Hens instead focused on their goals against the clock. "We weren’t expecting to win the meet," added Cavagnolo. "We were just trying to get some good times for some of the guys in their particular events, Dusty (Baker ’01) and (Ben) Komer PI ’02 especially."

Baker smoked CMS’s Jason Reed in the 200m butterfly, perhaps the most grueling event in any meet. It seemed as if Komer could lose nothing but a small amount of manly pride as he flew past all competition in both the 50m and 100m freestyle events. He was unfortnately wearing, to the dismay of many spectators, a not-so-flattering full-body Speedo. Both Baker and Komer are expected to make the natonals qualifying time in their events in coming weeks.