Wawasee’s Rachel Rozow heads for her final turn of the butterfly Tuesday night against NorthWood. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE — In the middle of a blistering schedule that has the Wawasee swim program facing a bulk majority of its conference slate in a three-week span, Tuesday night’s duels with NorthWood were a bit of relief.

The Panthers did not offer much of a challenge as Wawasee were able to mix around some swimmers into different events amongst the 141-43 boys win and 143-40 girls win at the Wawasee Middle School Natatorium.

Wawasee made hay right from the start, grabbing top scores in diving achieved by Tori Sylvester on the girls side and Tristan Mauk on the boys side. Sylvester posted a career-best 185.05 and Mauk also achieved a personal mark with his 185.60. Amber Mock had a decent six-set of dives with a 134.30, and Nate Hare dove for the first time and scored a 108.25.

“Diving should be pretty good for us as they continue to get more experience,” said Wawasee diving coach Jeff Herdrich. “Three of the four scores tonight were personal bests and Amber’s was 10 points away, so that’s good for us. We have a few more meets to go. I can see Tori and Tristan both scoring over 200 points. Tori and Tristan both can do harder dives, but both can really do well. Tori really had a good chance to make regionals. Tristan has a good shot, too.”

Zac Hershberger swims the breaststroke leg of Wawasee’s winning medley relay.

In the swim lanes, Wawasee continued to build its stamina at a point in the season where Wawasee’s boys begin a stretch of five meets in 10 days and the girls are in the midst of five meets in 13 days. The programs combined to win all 22 swims to go with its two diving honors.

Wawasee’s usual cast of characters led in wins on both teams, but a few names appeared that aren’t always in the headlines.

Caige Wahlgren earned a win as a member of the 200 free relay, joining Corey Kenworthy, Andrew Busse and Luke Smith at 1:43.12. Hannah Winters and Mikala Mawhorter picked up rare wins as part of the medley relay with sisters Betsy and Rachel Rozow at 2:06.07.

Wawasee had eight swimmers in total grab four-win nights and 14 swimmers had a top time overall.

Rachel Rozow added a fly (1:07.46) and 500 (6:02.66) win. Kayla Hershberger was tops in the 200 (2:11.33) and breaststroke (1:17.49), Bre Robinson the individual medley (2:11.79) and the backstroke (59.35), and Kendra Miller the 50 (27.38) and 100 (1:00.43) in individual swims. Rachel Rozow, Hershberger, Robinson and Miller had the top 200 free relay time at 1:49.45 and Betsy Rozow, Hershberger, Robinson and Miller were best in the 400 free relay at 4:00.76.

Wawasee freestyler Kayla Hershberger leads the pack in the 200.

Sebastian List claimed the IM (2:17.14) and backstroke (1:01.36), Logan Brugh the fly (1:00.08) and the 500 (5:13.74), Smith the 50 (24.09) and 100 (55.11) and Zac Hershberger the 200 (1:56.65) and breaststroke at 1:06.17. List, Brugh, Hershberger and Smith were top notch in the medley relay at 1:51.81 while List, Brugh, Hershberger and Busse claimed the 400 free relay at 3:44.32.

“This is really tough mentally, that’s why tonight you saw I really switched some kids out of their normal races to give them a mental break,” said Wawasee head coach Julie Robinson. “Just a little break to not have to always look at that scoreboard, worry about the clock and that grind. This was just nice to give them something else so they didn’t have a ‘best time’.”

Robinson’s alignment choices Tuesday also allowed for individuals to swim uncommon races, like Bre in the individual medley, Rachel Rozow the fly and Austin Krizman the 50 (second, 27.61).

“There were a few places where I just wanted to see what they could swim in a competition,” Robinson said. “The kids are very tired, very sore. Which is exactly what I would expect and want from them in this kind of schedule.”

Wawasee will host Plymouth this Thursday before the boys conduct their Wawasee Invite this Saturday morning. The Wawasee girls repeated as Invite champions last weekend. Next week will have Wawasee host Warsaw next Tuesday before heading to Northridge next Thursday to close out the 2012 portion of its calendar.