Wellesley and Bowdoin to prove first tests of season

The women's swim team had the weekend off to enjoy some turkey and catch up on sleep but the Jumbos will once again enter the pool for competition on Wednesday, 11 days after their last meet against Clark University.

Tufts utilized a group of younger athletes to overcome Clark 186-69. The team Coach Nancy Bigelow used against Clark was not Tufts' best, but enough to ensure a victory. The Jumbos will be more hard pressed to emerge victorious from two meetings with far better teams this week. On Wednesday Tufts will welcome Wellesley to their pool, and then on Saturday Tufts again will play host to Bowdoin. The meet against Bowdoin will be Tufts' first against a NESCAC conference opponent.

The all-girls school of Wellesley regularly fields a very strong team. The team went 5-2 overall last year, and was undefeated the previous two years. They are five-time defending champions of the Seven Sisters Championships and finished a respectable third at the NEWMAC championships last year.

A year ago the Jumbos held on for a 157-143 victory over the Blue. The core of both teams has remained in tact this season which will assure another good matchup. The main difference in Wellesley's roster is their loss of freestyle specialist Kathryn Claiborn to graduation. Clairborn won two events, the 50 and 100 freestyles in last year's meet.

Even without Clairborn, the Blue fields a strong squad. They return senior Jess LeRoy and junior Meredith Cowie, both All-New England Division III performers last year. LeRoy captured the honor in three events, the 100 and 200 butterflies and the 200 individual medley.

In the 200 butterfly LeRoy will battle Tufts sophomore Erica Weitz, who qualified for nationals last year in the event. LeRoy's best time in the event is 2:13.20. In her only 200 butterfly race this year, Weitz clocked a 2:16.87. However she was never pushed, as her closest competition finished nearly 20 seconds later.

LeRoy will have even more company in the 200 IM, as Weitz will most likely be joined by junior Mika Sumiyoshi. Sumiyoshi holds the current Jumbo record in the event with a 2:10.14, a time that is over five seconds better than Le Roy's best effort. Sumiyoshi also holds the Tufts' record for the 100 backstroke, Cowie's best event.

While Wellesley will provide a healthy dose of competition, Bowdoin will likely not prove such a fearsome foe. In terms of NESCAC match-ups, Bowdoin is one of the weaker teams in the NESCAC conference. Last year the Polar Bears finished ninth out of 11 teams at the NESCAC Championships and were easily defeated easily defeated by Tufts in a dual meet, 177-112.

The story will be similar this year, as the Jumbos should exploit Bowdoin's lack of depth. While Bowdoin has under 30 athletes, the Jumbos are over 40 strong and boast a team deep in quality as well as quantity. The Tufts' freshman class proved its worth against Clark University, and should also play a key role in the Bowdoin meet.

Bowdoin winners from last year that will again be in the pool come Wednesday include senior distance freestyler Rebecca Ahern and sophomore Nicole Goyette. Goyett won both the 200-yard breastroke and the 200-yard IM. The Polar Bears' 400-yard freestyle team also came away with the victory last time around. These wins are misleading, however, as the Jumbos did not enter their top performers in these events.

If Tufts can survive Wellesley, it has the potential to begin the season at 3-0, going undefeated before the Christmas break. This would be a good strategic start to the season, as it will only get harder for the Jumbos after they come back from break, as Williams looms amongst other stiff competition.