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Volume CXXXII, Number 11 |
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David vs. Goliath
SUEN WONG
STAFF WRITER
Through Farley's glass doors they walked-the mighty swimmers of Yale, the hulking giants from a Division I team full of great swimmers. To see them staring back across the pool, the Polar Bears were a little awestruck and tentative, but as wave after wave of swimmers dove into the water, it began to dawn on them that their opponents were not invincible.
As the now eager Polar Bears pressed the Yale swimmers more and more, they realized that they belonged in the same pool, that they still had much to learn about what they can do and what they can make of the season ahead.
The Bowdoin College Men's Swimming and Diving Team challenged Division I Yale at their first home meet of the season on Monday, November 25. Although both meets resulted in losses, coach Brad Burnham saw promise for the future of the team.
"The performances at the M.I.T. meet were very encouraging. We place more emphasis on the final championship meet in February, and the dual meets serve as progress reports for each swimmer or diver. We were very good in the shorter events, but that will change as the weeks go by and the conditioning improves."
Coach Burnham also noted that the Polar Bears' "enthusiasm for learning and improving seems to grow every year." He was especially pleased by the spirit that the team showed against Yale. Facing "a Division I school with many great swimmers" just two days after the MIT meet was admittedly a "huge challenge."
According to Burnham, the Polar Bears were "a little tentative" in the beginning, but "after a few close ones I saw many attitudes change. We began to race and many Bowdoin swimmers were happy to make the Yale swimmers earn their place. I think we are a much better team today because of that experience."
This weekend, the Polar Bears will be able to test just how much they learned from the first two meets of the season, "I think [the meet this weekend at Tufts] will be a great meet for us. The lay off over Thanksgiving is always tough to come back from but we take an educational approach to swimming. So as we learn to do things better we will get faster and faster throughout the season. This is our last meet before the Winter Break and it will tell a lot about the direction of the team."
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