Jumbo swim team begins where it left off

For the first time since November, the women's swimming and diving team left the friendly confines of Hamilton Pool on Saturday. It did not seem to matter, though, as the Jumbos began a month long road swing on the right foot by beating the Wesleyan Cardinals, 167-124. The Jumbos moved to 4-0 with the victory, and handed Wesleyan its fifth loss in six competitions.

The Jumbos began the meet strong and never looked back. They took first place in their first event, the 200-yard medley relay. Junior Mika Sumiyoshi took the lead for the Jumbos during the first leg, and the team only added to it as the race progressed.

Freshman Kathryn Mims closed out the event with a sizzling 29.26 leg. Mims came back later in the competition to take the 50-yard freestyle, with junior Amanda Bloom right behind her. Mims day was still not complete though, and she added another first place finish in the 100 freestyle with a time of 57.94 seconds. Sophomore Suzi Ascoli finished just behind Mims with a time of 58.19 seconds.

"They have a good freshman and a sophomore, and their diving team is also strong. But they don't have the depth that we have," coach Nancy Bigelow said.

Depth was the problem for the Cardinals. A victory for Tufts was eminent from the beginning because although Wesleyan had strong performances from some of its swimmers, its lack of depth proved to be the difference.

Cardinal freshman Stephanie Lasby led the Wesleyan attack. She finished with four first place finishes, but in two of those events, the 200 IM and the 200 freestyle relay, she finished behind unofficial entrants from Tufts.

Lasby also won the 500 and 1650 freestyles. Going into the match the latter race was thought to be the one to watch, a battle of two up and coming distance swimmers, as Lasby went against Jumbo sophomore Kate Sweeney. Before Saturday's meet, Lasby's best in the 1000 yard freestyle was just a second quicker. The narrow margin between the race times is also amplified by the length of the race.

Sweeney kept pace in the beginning of the race, but tired in the end, finishing her last nine laps in over 34 seconds. Meanwhile Lasby recorded just one lap time of over 34 seconds, remaining steady throughout the race.

The Jumbos poured it on early, winning the next nine events after the 1650 freestyle. Sumiyoshi recorded two easy victories in the 200 backstroke and the 200 freestyle. Sophomore Sarah Ferranti and Senior Daniele Blaney swam to a 1-2 finish respectively in the 100 backstroke.

Another three event winner for the Jumbos was Sophomore Katherine Ferguson. Ferguson swam fastest in both the 100 and 200 breastroke events, and was also the third leg of the 200 medley relay. In the 200 breastroke Ferguson prevented fellow teammate and Sophomore Erica Weitz from capturing her second first place finish. Earlier in the meet, Weitz cruised to victory in the 200 butterfly, beating the closest Wesleyan competitor by over ten seconds.

The other winners for the Jumbos were junior Beth Wecksell in the 1 meter diving and freshman Meghan Wallach in the 100 butterfly.

Over the break the team spent two weeks training in Barbados both to train and to bond.

"We all worked really hard for the past two weeks and have bonded as a team," senior tri-captain Shayna Burke said. "I think that we are in great shape and that our upcoming meets should be a great time for our team to perform really well and to enjoy the competition."

The upcoming schedule for the Jumbos reads Trinity on the Saturday and then MIT three days later. MIT should prove to be Tufts' first real challenge of the year. Over the past three years the Jumbos have fallen to the Engineers, but in each year the margin of victory has been shortened.

"Our meet against MIT is just three days after Trinity and we'll be tired," coach Bigelow said. "But if we keep our heads in the game, it will be very close."