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Volume CXXXIII, Number 14 |
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Swimmers make waves against Colby
MELISSA PERRIN
STAFF WRITER
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| A Bowdoin swimmer finishes up a sprint in preparation for the NESCAC Championships. The women's team competes next weekend at Wesleyan while the men's team has another week off. (Hans Law, Bowdoin Orient) |
The Bowdoin swim teams had split outcomes after battling it out with Colby in Waterville, Maine on Saturday. After beating Bates in December, the Bowdoin Men's Swim Team beat Colby on Saturday 146.5-140.5 to capture the CBB title. The women's team fell to its host, 187-105.
Last year against Colby, the duel between the men's teams came down to the final relay, with the Bowdoin swimmers pulling out a last-second victory. This year's meet was predicted to be close as well, and indeed it was. After dropping the first relay, the 1000-yard freestyle was an uncharacteristically close race, with Mike Sighinolfi '07 touching out Colby's Brad Simmons (10:52.88) to win the event in 10:52.72.
Roger Burleigh '06 swam to his first victory of the day in the 200-yard freestyle, winning by four seconds with his time of 1:48.31. Burleigh then took first place in the 200-yard butterfly (2:00.50). In the 100-yard freestyle, Mike Long '04 tied Colby rival Tom Ireland for first (48.83), Carter Thomas '06 (51.68) and Chad Pelton '04 (51.85) captured some valuable points for the team by finishing third and fourth.
The 500-yard freestyle proved to be another exciting event with the top three Bowdoin swimmers coming in just ahead of their Colby counterparts. Burleigh broke the five minute mark to beat out Colby's top finisher for first-place points. Ian Kyle '06 pulled out a last-lap win over Colby's second swimmer, and Long, swimming a rare distance event, earned fifth-place points, shutting out Colby's third swimmer.
Following the 500-meter, as the only Bowdoin swimmer in the 100-yard butterfly, Thomas pulled out an important victory, earning nine first-place points and keeping the point differential the same in spite of Colby's three swimmers.
Brian McGregor '04 swept the diving events, and Max Goldstein '07 won the 400-yard Individual Medley. For the second year in a row, the meet came down to the 400-yard freestyle relay, as Bowdoin was ahead of Colby by only one point.
Last year this had been an extremely close race, with anchor Burleigh pulling ahead in the final leg of the race to win it. This year, the relay team of Kyle, Jason Lewis '06, Long, and Burleigh combined to win the event by seven seconds (3:17.36) and in doing so, smashed the Colby pool record by five seconds.
"This was, by far, the best display of competing I have seen in my short time at Bowdoin," said Coach Brad Burnham. "The men did anything and everything they could to ensure a successful meet. We had guys step up and race outside their comfort zone with tremendous success. We came out on top of almost all of the close races and pounded home a few others. Colby put together a great line-up which challenged us until the final event, but we just had too much left for them."
The women's team also saw some records fall. Katie Chapman '07 broke the Colby pool record by five seconds in the 400-yard Individual Medley with her time of 4:38.01, and broke the Colby pool record and her own Bowdoin record in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 53.97. Megan McLean '07 also broke the pool record (previously 2:14.87 ) in the 200-yard butterfly with her first-place time of 2:14.28.
"Competing with Colby is always fun because the stakes are higher," said Chapman. "I was happy with my races, but all of the broken pool records were the highlight of the meet."
Chapman swam to another victory in the 100-yard backstroke, and Nicole Goyette '05 won the 50-yard freestyle (25.64). Bowdoin's diving team also performed well, with Tori Tudor '06 and Mindy Chism '06 finishing 1-2 on both the one and three meter boards.
"The women are looking great heading into conference. We had some tremendous individual efforts, and I expect some great things at the conference meet," said Burnham. "I am counting on our sprint group to really step up the intensity and surprise some people. Our line-up was more about getting in some swims for everyone, and we looked strong in all distances and strokes. I can't wait for conference. We are going to be fast!"
Both teams are off this weekend as they prepare for their respective championship meets.
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