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Volume CXXXIII, Number 16 |
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Polar Bears improve standing, break records
MELISSA PERRIN
STAFF WRITER
The Bowdoin Women's Swim Team traveled to Wesleyan last weekend for three days of swimming at the NESCAC championships. The team finished ninth, improving on last year's tenth place finish, and setting ten new college records in the process.
"The conference meet was, by far, the best one I have been here for," Head Coach Brad Burnham said. "We work all season for the NESCAC meet and this one was more than I had hoped for."
Bowdoin scored 541 points, ahead of Wesleyan (522.5) and Trinity (481). Williams won the meet for the fourth consecutive year, scoring 1711.5 points, followed by Middlebury (1479) and Amherst (1241).
Typically a team that gets stronger as the weekend goes on, Bowdoin lived up to the team's motto of "take it like a champ!" starting with the first event Friday morning at preliminaries, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Megan McLean '07, Erin Turban '06, Nicole Goyette '05, and Aubrey Sharman '06 broke the school record in 1:40.53.
This record would be short-lived, however, as McLean, Goyette, Sharman, and Melissa Hayden '05 set a new record (1:40.30) on Friday night at finals.
This was not the only record broken on the first day-Goyette also broke the mark for the 50-yard freestyle (24.75), and nationals-bound diver Tori Tudor '06 eclipsed the mark on the one-meter board (370.85 points) en route to a fourth place finish.
Katie Chapman '07 and McLean swam to top-eight finishes in each of their individual events, capturing some new records in the process. McLean swam to fifth-place finishes in the 50- and 200-yard butterfly and a fourth place finish in the 100-yard butterfly, breaking records in the 100- (58.67) and 200-yard fly (2:09.29) and coming within hundredths of the 50-yard fly record.
Chapman swam to two second-place finishes and school records in the 200- and 400-yard Individual Medleys (2:07.04 and 4:33.26), and a sixth place finish in the 200-yard backstroke. In addition, leading off the 400-yard freestyle relay, she broke her own record in the 100-yard freestyle (53.57).
"I loved racing! When you are tapered, it's such a blast to just get up there and go," Chapman said. "It's especially rewarding if you drop time as that's the payoff for all the hard work done during the season."
Chapman, McLean, Sharman, and Michelle Filteau '06 teamed up to set a new record in the 800-yard freestyle relay on Saturday evening (8:01.30), and in the last event of the meet on Sunday evening, Chapman, McLean, Goyette, and Sharman broke the record in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:36.77).
"The energy throughout the course of the meet was amazing," Sharman said. "People seemed to be feeding off each other's swims and everyone wanted to see each other do well. By Sunday night, we were ready to get in there and finish the meet."
Team Butterfly was strong as usual. In addition to McLean's top-five finishes, Hayden placed 16 in the 50-yard fly and 19 in the 100 fly, and Turban scored points for her 23rd-place finish in the 50-yard fly. Alex Knapp '07 narrowly missed qualifying for finals but scored points on the medley relay team.
Katie Eshelman '06 led the breaststrokers with her 21st place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. First years Lauren Steffel and Suzanne Plant made vast improvements this year and look very promising in future seasons.
Filteau and senior captain Kiele Mauricio scored points in the 200- and 400-yard Individual Medley respectively. Goyette swam to a seventh-place finish in the 50-yard backstroke and 13th place in the 100-yard backstroke.
Bowdoin's divers scored many valuable points. After her impressive performance on the one-meter board, Tudor came in eighth on the three-meter board. Mindy Chism '06, who has improved tremendously over the course of the season, came in 15th on the one-meter board and 14th on the three-meter board.
Meredith Lammert '06 had the longest weekend for Bowdoin, racing over 3000 yards and improving with each swim-in her final race of the weekend, the 1650-yard freestyle, she dropped over a minute to finish in 21:11.55. Middle distance swimmer Kelly Devine '06 finished strong as well, with a sub-2:10 split in the 800-yard freestyle relay and a time of 59.70 in the 100-yard freestyle.
Sprinter Annie Cronin '07 improved with every race, recording a lifetime best in the 50-yard free with a relay split of 26.05. Her 58.17 100-yard freestyle exceeded everyone's expectations; then, as part of a 400-yard freestyle relay team, she bettered her time by a second.
"The NESCAC meet experience is the most exciting of the season: everyone is mentally and physically determined to swim fast and the fan support makes you shake with energy!" Goyette said.
"The worst day of the season is the last one," said Burnham, "so I am already looking forward to next year. I think great things are ahead for this team."
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