The women's swimming and diving team saw its undefeated streak come to an end this past Saturday. Hampered by injury and fatigue, Tufts lost to Bates 192-106.
"I think we were just tired," freshman Sarah Ferranti said. "We have just come back from the training trip and this was the third meet in the two weeks. We have been practicing hard and there is a lot of illness on the team."
The Jumbos got off to a rocky start in the 200 yard medley relay. The section A team, including sophomore Kierstyn Thayer, freshmen Katharine Ferguson, Ferranti, and anchor Katelyn Stevens, touched the line in second place, with a time of 1:59.57. They lost to the first place Bates team by three seconds. This was the theme for the rest of the meet with only a few exceptions: a string of second and fourth place finishes.
The next race up was the 1000 freestyle. This season the Jumbos have found a huge boost in the distance races with freshman Kathryn Sweeney. In past years, this has been an area of competition in which the team has struggled.
Unfortunately for the team, Sweeney's boost on Saturday was only enough for a second place finish with a time of 11:17.85 - seven seconds too late.
The Jumbos scored one of their three first-place finishes in the other long distance swim, the 500 freestyle. Freshman Erica Weitz raced to victory with a time of 5:23.43, four seconds ahead of Bates freshman Nicole Sparks. Weitz has stepped up her role on the team since coming back from the break. In the previous back-to-back meet weekend, Weitz brought in two first-place finishes and three second-place finishes.
Sophomore diver Beth Wecksell came through for the team once again with first place points. She won the one-meter diving with a score of 241.35 and came in second in the three-meter diving, scoring 212.18 points.
The only other first-place finish for the Jumbos occurred during the last race of the meet, the 200 freestyle relay. Ascoli, Stevens, sophomore Amanda Bloom, and anchor Thayer touched the wall in 1:46.05, three seconds before the Bates relay team.
In the middle distance swims, Tufts knew it was entering the meet at a disadvantage due to the loss of one of its top swimmers. Sophomore Mika Sumiyoshi, the only swimmer to qualify for nationals last winter, is out with a knee injury. In the past, the team could rely on Sumiyoshi to help out in the relays and the middle distance swims, particularly the individual medley.
In the 200 freestyle, freshman Susan Ascoli racked up a second-place finish with a time of 2:04.17, losing by three seconds. Ferranti followed in the next race with a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke (1:06.25), again losing by three seconds. Senior tri-captain Sarah Hertzog also scored second place points in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:21.42.
The Jumbos went into this meet with a different racing strategy than that of past meets.
"Up until this meet of the season, we have been focusing on individual times," Stevens said. "This meet we were more focused on having good races for the team rather than individual times. It was a hard loss to have since it was the first of the season. However, it really built team unity. We weren't focusing on the meet that we lost, but instead on some of the great races we had."
Coach Nancy Bigelow expected Bates to be a challenge for Tufts. It was the team's real test of the season, except for its victory over rival Wellesley. Tufts has lost to Bates for the past two years, although by smaller point margins. Bates was an even stronger team this season due to key contributions from freshmen. Seven of the races in this meet were won by freshmen.
Fatigue and illness were factors in the loss: the Jumbos haven't taken a break since coming back from their training trip over the winter break. They returned to face Wesleyan and Trinity in the same weekend, followed by a full week of training.
However, the focus of this type of training is not for these specific meets but for the NESCAC championship at the end of the season. The swimmers will taper their training and rest up for this meet in hopes of achieving personal bests for the season during that meet.
The Jumbos will not have much time to rest before their next meet against MIT on Tuesday night at home.
"We just need to keep our spirits up," Ferranti said. "We still have the rest of the season and we will be training hard for the championships. I'm confident we will have good times ahead."
