Rookie Athletes Shine in Ober

SPORTS

December 3, 2021 Established 1874

Rookie Athletes Shine in Oberlin Invitational

A student dives during the Oberlin Swim Invitational.

Kayla Kim

While most of campus was cramming for midterms and preparing for Thanksgiving break, the Oberlin swimming and diving team spent Nov. 18–20 competing against ten other colleges at the Oberlin Invitational.

The Yeowomen rose to the occasion with a first-place finish overall after a close loss to Ashland University two weeks before. First-year Bella Sites earned fourth place in the 200-yard backstroke, while clocking the ninth-fastest time in school history: 2:13.89.

Ava Peyton, a first-year specializing in backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle, was proud of her first-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:00:53.

“I had a close race with someone I tied with in [preliminaries],” Peyton said. “I was so nervous before the race, but cheering on my teammates and being in the positive atmosphere on deck helped me feel prepared and confident.”

After already securing a top-10 time in program history in the event, Peyton is hoping to break the school record of 58.29 seconds later this season.

Third-year and first-time diving competitor Lucas Draper took a fifth-place overall finish in diving. He originally swam for Oberlin as a first-year but began diving in the 2020–21 season, which was entirely virtual. Draper hopes to continue achieving personal goals.

“I want to be able to learn more dives on 1-meter before conference championships to score better,” Draper said. “Obviously, I want to keep improving my technique, … and I also want to learn dives on the 3-meter to begin to compete in another event.”

While the first-years have certainly contributed a lot to the team’s success, Aquatic Director and Head Swimming and Diving Coach Alex de la Peña knows they couldn’t do it without a strong set of values in training.

Courtesy of Amanda Phillips

“Our core values as a program are cohesiveness, hard work, accountability, and resiliency, and they work hard each day to keep those in focus for themselves and their teammates,” de la Peña said.

In addition to their rigorous training, Peyton feels there is a strong team atmosphere that improves everyone’s performance.

“My teammates are some of my best friends on campus and I’m so grateful for them,” Peyton said. “The first-year swimmers are super friendly, and I feel comfortable with them, especially because of the few weeks we spent together before classes started. They’re great at checking in during practice and meets and supporting me if I’m having a hard day. It’s a fun, inclusive, and challenging environment.”

Coach de la Peña highlights the importance of the role the captains play on the team.

“With such a young team, their leadership is critically important to our success and we are very lucky to have [fourth-years] Rachel Maxwell, Kate Raphaely, Richard Ellis, and Jonathan Hupfeld in those positions,” de la Peña said. “They have been through the ups and downs of rebuilding this program and are happy to see their hard work paying off.”

For the rest of the season, Coach de la Peña hopes to win as many meets as possible before competing in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships in February. Specifically, he hopes to win on the women’s squad and place in the top three on the men’s side. However, win or lose, de la Peña emphasizes the team’s culture and attitude above all else.

“The goal as a team was simple … have fun and swim fast,” de la Peña said. “We wanted 100 percent season-best times and as many lifetime-best swims as possible. We also continue to work hard sticking to our core values and strengthening the overall team culture.”

The team hopes to continue their momentum in the next meet against John Carroll University on Dec. 17.

Volume 151, Number 7

Women’s Basketball Dominates Season So Far

Second-year point guard Gina Lombard competes against Muskingum University on Nov. 23. Courtesy of Amanda Phillips

Zoë Martin del Campo Contributing Sports Editor

With six wins under their belt, the Oberlin women’s basketball team has broken school records, starting the season 6–0 and 1–0 in conference play. It is no accident that the season is off to a fantastic start, as the team has worked tirelessly to build a competitive and supportive atmosphere since their last season in 2019–20. Before the season began, the women’s basketball team was expected to place fifth in the conference, an expectation they have surpassed as they are now seeded second.

“It feels great having that record, it is more than we could ever hope for,” wrote Alyson Jefferson, a second-year guard for the team, in an email to the Review. “We were picked to be number five in the conference, and we are beating those odds, which is amazing for us.”

Head Women’s Basketball Coach Stephany Dunmyer attributes some of the success to the team’s sense of purpose. When the team competed against Alma College on Nov. 9, it had been 623 days since the Yeowomen had been in competition.

Dunmyer says that the team’s preparation and mindset last year was a little different without competitive games, but its sense of purpose was the same: to push the team culture forward and to be a truly connected group on and off the court.

“This season, we have focused on a lot of the same things, but our practices have been centered around team strategies and play and not as much on individual reps and skill development,” Dunmyer wrote in an email to the Review. “With games in the mix, we also place a big emphasis on learning and preparing by watching film — both on our team and our opponents during scouting reports.”

For first-year starter Bry Woodard, preparation began prior to when she was an inseason collegiate athlete with players focusing on how to come together as a young team.

“Preparation was crucial this season even before we stepped foot on campus,” Woodward wrote in an email to the Review. “Once we got here, our practices were learning-focused as we were a team of mostly underclassmen, so it was a lot of teaching and learning. Our mindset going in was to work. Still, to this day, our goal is to simply outwork whoever our opponent is for the time that we are playing.”

For more than half the team, this is their first collegiate season of basketball, making the team’s success even more impressive. Despite this, Woodard believes the transition to collegiate athletics was not difficult because of the support she received from her teammates. She fondly remembers her first pickup game with the team.

“The transition from high school ball to college ball