The women's swimming and diving team came in sixth place at the NESCAC championships this weekend at Williams College, finishing with a final score of 834.5. Thee members of the squad will now wait until later this week to determine if they qualify for the National championships in individual events.
When competing with teams such as Williams, the fourth-best Div. III team in the nation, and Amherst, the 11th-best, coach Nancy Bigelow had to go into the NESCACs with realistic goals. While the Jumbos would not be able to swim competitively with certain teams, Bigelow knew they had a shot at beating closer NESCAC competitors Bates and Colby.
Though the Jumbos did not compete against Colby in the regular season, the White Mules were expected to be an obstacle in attaining Bigelow's post-season goal of sixth place. Going into the competition, Colby appeared to be the most evenly matched team with Tufts, as both teams won and lost against the same teams over the course of the season. Tufts pulled ahead, however, at the championships dominating Colby throughout the course of the weekend, and defeating the Mules by 91.5 points.
"We knew Colby would be tight," senior tri-captain Joan Vollero said. "But we ended up doing really well against them."
Bates was a different story. Tufts lost to Bates at a time during the regular season when the team was plagued with injury and illness. Though the majority of the team had recovered coming into this weekend, the team still knew that defeating Bates would be a stretch.
As the weekend played out, Tufts had Bates within its grasp. In the first swim of Friday's competition, the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Jumbo relay team of sophomores Mika Sumiyoshi and Amanda Bloom, and freshmen Katharine Ferguson and Susan Ascoli came in fifth place (1:41.82), well ahead of ninth-place Bates.
The rest of the competition was an up-and-down battle between the two teams. The Jumbos heavily outscored Bates in races such as the 200 IM, as Sumiyoshi took third place with a time 2:10.14. Freshman Erica Weitz also took eighth place in 2:13.80, placing two swimmers ahead of the tenth and 11th place finishers from Bates.
Sumiyoshi played a pivotal role in keeping the scores close throughout, also earning second-place points in the 400 IM, the highest finish of any Jumbo. Wietz was right behind her however, scoring third place points for the team. Both Wietz and Sumiyoshi qualified for Nationals with those times in the 400 IM. Sumiyoshi also has a shot with her time in the 200 IM. They find out later this week whether they get to make the trip to Nationals.
Also waiting to find out about Nationals is sophomore diver Beth Wecksell. As Tufts sole diving representative in the meet, she contributed a vital 49 points to the team. She finished in fourth place in the one-meter and seventh place in the three-meter.
Tufts was ahead of Bates at the end of Saturday's competition.
"We were really close to beating Bates," freshman Kate Sweeney said. "We have never been that close before."
Sweeney contributed a large number of points toward keeping up with Bates in the long distance swims. She took third in the 1,000 freestyle (10:55.06), defeating the fifth-place Bates freestyle swimmer. She also took sixth in the 1650 freestyle (18:13.47), whereas Bates' top swimmer came in 11th.
"I was very happy with my races, particularly in the 1,000 freestyle," Sweeney said. "I was in eighth place after the preliminaries and I was just working to keep that spot. I didn't expect to get third place."
Bates found its stronger events on Sunday, however, and was able to pull ahead of Tufts, eventually beating the Jumbos by 60 points. Tufts' depth of team shone throughout the competition, though. As Bates tended to outplace Tufts swimmers, the Jumbos had more swimmers qualifying for races after the prelims. This helped to keep the score between the two teams close.
"We were so close to beating Bates," freshman Sarah Ferranti said. "We were in such great shape going into the meet, after the taper. The coaches were all really relaxed and everyone was up and cheering for everyone's race, even if they were the last person out there. It was a great meet for the team. I think trying to beat Bates will be a really good goal for next year."
For the three senior tri-captains, Miranda Eagles, Sarah Hertzog, and Vollero, this meet was the culmination of their career at Tufts.
"It was a nice ending," Vollero said, "A lot more emotional than I expected."
