The women's swimming and diving team dominated its home meet against Bowdoin on Saturday, winning by 22 points. The Jumbos were led by strong performances by freshmen Mika Sumiyoshi and Amanda Bloom, and sophomore Emily Gordon.
The relatively close final score of 152-130, however, is not indicative of the way that Tufts swam because once a team reaches 152, they automatically win the meet and points are only added to the losing team's score. Therefore, the margin of victory was actually much greater.
Coach Nancy Bigelow was not expecting this to be a difficult meet. "This was a little more relaxed [than the meet against Wellesley]. Everyone did a great job," she said.
As with last Wednesday's meet Sumiyoshi won all of her races. She kept her lead in the 500-yard freestyle through the whole race, finishing with a time of 5:19.93, 33 seconds faster than anyone else. She also came in first in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:19, seven seconds faster than anyone else. This was the first time in a while that she competed in this event.
Also contributing to the team was Gordon, with an impressive race in the 1000 freestyle, winning the race by nine seconds, in 11:32. She continues to improve on her time in the event, swimming it a half a second faster at this meet than against Wellesley.
"I pulled in my time so I was happy," Gordon said.
While Gordon and Sumiyoshi took the long distance races, Bloom had a standout performance in the short races. She finished first in both the 50 and 100 freestyle with times of 26.46 and 56.86, respectively. She improved on her time in the 100 by a second compared to the Wellesley meet.
Other race winners were freshman Bridget McElroy, sophomore Becky Ullman, sophomore Shayna Burke and freshman Kierstyn Thayer. McElroy won in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:16, an improvement from last week by a couple tenths of seconds. Ullman out-touched senior tri-captain Kristin Horton in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:44, beating Horton by a hundredth of a second. Burke contributed in the 100 butterfly with a time of 1:06, bettering her previous time by a second. Thayer won in the 200 Individual Medley with a time of 2:21.
The relay teams also competed strongly, winning in the 200 medley relay and in the 200 freestyle relay. The 200 medley team, comprised of Thayer, Horton, Sumiyoshi, and Bloom, won by a second with a time of 1:59. The freestyle team, comprised of Bloom, Horton, Sumiyoshi, and freshman Danielle Blaney won by five seconds with a time of 1:47.
The diving team ran into difficulties facing Bowdoin's four time All-American senior Maureen Singer. Singer was in the top eight at Nationals last year. She won both portions of the diving. Sophomore Lauren Reveley came in third place in the first portion and fifth place in the second portion. Freshman Beth Wecksell placed fourth in the first portion and second in the second portion.
"The divers did a good job," Bigelow said, "but when competing against stars it's difficult."
Since Bigelow was not expecting too much competition, she was able to mix around who competed in each race. This adds options for future meets and gives people chances to race in events they haven't been able to in a while. "It is good to have a little flexibility," Bigelow said.
Overall, everyone was very happy with the meet. "There was a lot of spirit," Gordon said, "everyone was standing and cheering everyone on."
The Jumbos now head into the break with a 2-1 record. The last week of the break, the Brown and Blue will be traveling to Aruba to train.
"We are going to have a good season," Gordon said. "We will be practicing really hard and we will do well especially after the trip. Everyone is going to know each other a lot better and swim really fast."
Bigelow knows the length of the road they have to travel, however. "We have a long way to go yet but we are in a good place. We have to stay mentally cognitive and get into the water and train."
