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Volume CXXXII, Number 17 |
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Polar Bears swim to 10th in NESCACs
ALLISON BENTON
STAFF WRITER
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| The swim team ralies to support a teammate in a tight race. (Karsten Moran, Bowdoin Orient) |
The Bowdoin Women's Swimming and Diving Team ended a great season at the NESCAC Championships this past weekend with a tenth place finish in their own pool. The team broke the 500-point mark after its three days of competition for the first time in NESCAC history.
"The team looked absolutely fantastic this past weekend," said Lindsay McCombs '05. "Our victory came through going faster as a team than we have ever gone before." As a member of team backstroke, she has much to be proud of. She and teammate Nisha Ajmani '06 both swam personal bests in the 200-yard backstroke. Meanwhile Emma Leonard '05 dropped three seconds in the 100, and Nicole Goyette '05 scored tenth in the finals of the 50-yard backstroke.
As usual, "team distance really rocked this weekend," said Melissa Perrin '05. "Watching them really got me psyched up for my own races."
Particularly inspiring moments included Laura Welsh '05 breaking the six minute mark in her 5000-yard freestyle and dropping a whopping 23 seconds in the 1000-yard freestyle, only to come back to swim the 1650 the next day.
She was joined by teammate Meredith Hoar '03 who accomplished the same feat, dropping 12 seconds in her 1000 and five seconds in her 500. Fellow senior Alli Hinman swam the 1000 in 11:42.41 for a personal best and finished with a speedy 400-yard freestyle relay.
Hinman said, "That last relay on Sunday night had so much power and energy and kicked mega-butt-it made me so proud to be on our team!" Her time of 57.7 was 1.5 seconds faster than her personal best, and the 'B' relay touched in for a sixth place finish.
For the divers, "NESCAC weekend was awesome," said Daniella "D" Engen '05. D broke her personal best scores on the one-meter board this past weekend.
However, she said, "it was more exciting watching Victoria Tudor '06 beat some of those Williams chicks!" Tudor dove to third place on the one-meter board and sixth place in the three-meter board after only one year of competition in the latter event.
Team butterfly also contributed many points and personal bests to the meet, with Erin Turban '06 and Melissa Hayden '05 finishing eleventh and twelfth in the 100-yard butterfly, respectively. Hayden also placed thirteenth in the 50-yard butterfly and Turban eighteenth in the 200.
Hayden was joined by teammates Nicole Goyette '05, Michelle Filteau '06, Katie Eshelman '06, Kiele Mauricio '04, and Anna Podore '03 in the Bowdoin-dominated finals in the 100-yard individual medley. Goyette improved her time from morning to night, finishing third overall.
After the rigorous three days of competition, the team was very happy with the results of its last meet of the 2003 season. Said Hoar, "We went into that meet with more spirit than all the other teams combined. We were there for each other during each race, and it really made the difference for us to swim fast."
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