By Emily Dunn

Women’s Swimming and Diving:
Half-way through their regular season Women’s Swimming and Diving is still enjoying an undefeated record. After winning over St. Mary’s on Nov. 17, 124-101, the women bettered their season totals to 5-0 (4-0 in the MIAC).

Against St. Mary’s the Scots produced nine first-place finishes. Alanna Mozena ’07 and Annie Flanagan ’09 won the diving events, with Mozena winning the 1-meter board with a score of 207.9 and Flanagan taking the 3-meter with 208.87. In the swimming events the women were led by Jackie DeLuca ’07 who won both the 800 and 100 freestyle. Along with DeLuca Nancy Taff ’07 won the 200 free in 2:22.26 and Alex Cortes took the 50 free in 29.66.

On Nov. 18 the women won the 10th annual Macalester Invitational with 409 points, for the third year in row. The Scots edged out St. Thomas by seven points.

As a team the Scots had six first place finishes, six second-place finishes and six third-place finishes. Kristin Meadows ’07 took first in both the 200 and 100-meter butterfly. Anna Gajewski ’10 won the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2:37.96 and Taff took first in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:56.08. The Scots clinched first place by winning the day’s final event, the 200-meter freestyle relay in a meet-record time of 4:19.70.

Next up for the women is the St. Mary’s Invitational on Saturday in Winona.

Men’s Swimming and Diving:

Mac Men’s Swimming has not enjoyed as many wins as its women’s counterpart but they the team is still off to what should be an exciting season. The Scots won over St. Mary’s on Nov. 17, 106-95, to even their record to 2-2. The Scots picked up seven first-place finishes and were led by Mitch Stepleton ’10 who won the 800-freesyle in 9:42.14, the 100 freestyle in 57.67 and 400 free in 4:43.58. Along with Stepleton, Seth McIntire ’09 won the 200 freestyle in 2:18.01 and 100-meter butterfly in 1:12.79.

On Nov. 18 at the Macalester Invitational the men took third place, behind St. Thomas and Hamline, with 206 points. Stepleton ’10 led the way for the men again by winning the 200-meter freestyle in 2:06.15, just missing the meet record of 2:06.07. Ramiro Nandez-Acosta ’08 placed second in the 400 individual medley and David Wright ’07 swam to two third place finishes in the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke.

The men are also headed to the St. Mary’s Invitational tomorrow, Saturday.

Women’s Basketball:

Women’s Basketball began its season Thanksgiving weekend by traveling to Pasadena, California for the Caltech Thanksgiving Classic. The team’s first game was on Nov. 24 against Elmhurst (Ill.), where the Scots lost 36-53. Mac out-rebounded Elmhurst 47-38 as Ann Baltzer ’10 and Callie PaStarr ’07 grabbed 10 boards each. The Scots played well defensively, led by Danielle Johnson ’10 who had five of the team’s 11 steals. The women’s top scorers were Elise Pagel ’09 with 11 points and Baltzer with 10 points.

Things changed on Nov. 25 when the women defeated Caltech 70-42. Johnson had 21 points, four assists, four steals, and three blocked shots as the Scots evened their season record to 1-1. PaSarr finished with 16 points and a career-high eight assists and Baltzer finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

At the half the women led 37-16 after shooting 52% over the first 20 minutes. Combined, Johnson, PaStarr, and Baltzer went 22-for-34 from the field.

The Scots’ next game is Saturday at St. Catherine’s at 3 p.m.

Men’s Basketball:

Men’s Basketball began its season in Daytona Beach, Fla. Nov. 18 with an 87-85 win over Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Embry-Riddle came in at 5-0 and ranked fifth in the national in NAIA Division II rankings after going 33-3 last season.

The Scots were led by Tom Conboy ’08 who led five Mac players in double figures with 21 points while also collecting 13 rebounds. Along with Conboy, Brad Liddell ’08 scored 17 points in just 21 minutes of play. Also in the double figures were Brian Ranwick ’09 with a career high 16 points and Abe Woldeslassie ’08 with 13 points and nine assists in his first game as a Scot.

The Scots led by 15 points with 4:41 to go, but the Eagles stormed back with a 19-8 run to make the score 85-82 with 0:39 remaining. Jesse Hollander ’07 sunk a pair of free throws to get the Mac lead back to five points. The Eagles had a chance to tie or win after a pair of missed foul shots by Mac, but a turnover with just :01 to play sealed the win for the Scots.

The men continued their season on Nov. 21 with a 70-85 loss to Northwestern College. Northwestern led 36-29 at halftime and put 49 second half points on the board by going 16-for-27 from the field. Liddell scored 17 points to lead the Scots, followed by Ranwick who added 15 on a 6-for-8 shooting performance. Both Ranwick and Woldeslassie had five assists while Hollander led rebounders with eight boards, along with his nine points.

The men bettered their season record on Nov. 25 with an 87-73 win over UW-River Falls. The Scots gave up the game’s first few points but responded with a three-pointer and led for the rest of the game. Woldeslassie went 5-for-6 on three-pointers and finished with 23 points and five assists to lead the Scots. Conboy had 20 points and Liddell scored 17. Lidell also went 4 of 5 from the three-point range.

The Scots next game is at St. Mary’s on Dec 4.