Welcome back to the Scot Rewind, where WoosterAthletics.com is taking a look back at a big win, a monster individual performance, or a significant milestone corresponding with each week of the 2020-2021 academic year. The North Coast Athletic Conference is widely regarded as the preeminent conference when it comes to swimming & diving at the Div. III level, largely due to Denison University and Kenyon College, which have combined to win 39 of the 45 men's NCAA Div. III titles and 24 of the 38 on the women's side. The College of Wooster has a highly respected program with three national champions and over 200 All-America honors. For this week's rewind, we look back at Wooster's 2003 men's team, which finished third at the NCAC Championships. Here's a modified recap of Wooster's men's results from the 2003 NCAC Championships. Next week, we'll feature one of the women's top NCAC finishes.

Wooster's men's team found itself in eighth place after day one of the 2003 NCAC Championships, but climbed up to third by meet's end, for its highest finish since 1997.

Wooster began the NCAC Championships with a solid fifth-place effort from the 200 freestyle relay of junior Mike Moore, sophomore Clint Nicely, freshman Joe Silvestri, and junior Curtis Wolfe (1:27.72).

Silvestri reached a championship final as an individual on night one, placing eighth in the 50 freestyle (21.74), while other notables were Jim Gilchrist coming in 15th in the 200 individual medley (2:00.37) and Adam Yack's 16th-place performance in the 500 freestyle (5:01.05).

The Scots' big move came on night two, when Wooster compiled 334 points to jump from eighth to third. At that point, Wooster had 476 points and were tasked with holding off Wittenberg University (435.50) and Wabash College (400.50) come day three.

The Scot men compiled four individual top-eight finishes during Friday's competition, led by freshmen divers Todd Koenig and Aaron Bergman. Koenig earned all-conference honors with a third-place effort on the three-meter board (257), while Bergman was not far behind in fifth (217.75).

In the pool, sophomore Kevin Wolfe and Silvestri each reached championship finals. In fact, Wolfe set a school record and came in fifth overall in the 400 individual medley (4:13.12), while the former record holder, Gilchrist, placed 12th in that event (4:20.90). Silvestri came in eighth in the 200 freestyle (1:45.56).

Other notables from night two included junior Sam Almy touching ninth in the 100 backstroke (54.09) and 12th in the 100 butterfly (53.97), and the 800 freestyle relay team of Silvestri, Almy, Gilchrist, and Yack finishing fifth (7:14.43).

Down the stretch, Wolfe delivered two of Wooster's five top-eight showings on Saturday. The sophomore just missed out on all-conference honors by coming in fourth-place in the 200 backstroke, but did set a new school record in the event (1:55.61). He later took eighth in the 200 butterfly (2:00.31).

Silvestri qualified for his third championship final of the NCAC meet and touched seventh in the 100 freestyle (47.35), while Koenig and Bergman ended up in fourth- (297.80) and sixth-place (209.55) in one-meter diving.

Additional notables from the final night on the men's side included David Brumbaugh hitting the wall 11th in the 200 backstroke (1:59.82), while right behind him in the event was Almy (1:59.97). Yack turned in the 12th-place time of 17:30.77 in the 1,650 freestyle.

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