Swimmers take sixth at NESCAC Championships

It had been a year in coming for junior Mika Sumiysoshi. Last year at the NESCAC Championships, the junior swimmer was ill, but still managed to qualify for three events at Nationals, taking third in the 200 IM, second in the 400 IM, and fifth in the 200-yard backstroke. While she acheived personal bests in each race, she was still not satisfied.

"My goal for the year is to make Nationals, but place better than i did last year," Sumiyoshi said at the beginning of the year. "I was sick and injured for much of the season last year."

Sumiyoshi not only achieved her goal, but accomplished something no Tufts swimmer had done since 1998 -- winning a NESCAC Individual Championship. At the end of the weekend she took home two individual titles in the 200 and 400 IM races. She also took fourth in the 200-yard backstroke, thus improving in every event.

On Friday, Sumiyoshi took the 200 IM in 2:08.09. She swam to victory almost a second faster than anyone else in the conference, and her time was over two seconds faster than last year's time. In the 400 IM the following day Sumiyoshi again almost bested her nearest opponent by two seconds, finishing in 4:32.62. Her times also qualified her for the NCAA Championships in both events.

Sumiyoshi will again have company at nationals thanks to sophomore Erica Weitz. Weitz qualified for the second straight year in the 400 IM, taking eighth over the weekend. Her time, 4:40.39, was not the fastest time she ever clocked in the event, but it was good enough to qualify. The 400 IM had one of the most talented group of competitors amongst all the races, with a total of ten swimmers qualifying for a berth at Nationals in the race.

Weitz also took sixth in the 200-yard butterfly, but did not qualify for the event at Nationals, missing the mark by less than half a second. Electing not to swim in the 200 IM this year, an event in which she qualified for Nationals last year, Weitz instead took to the waters in the 500 yard freestyle on Friday. There she swam for sixth, and again just missed a qualifying time.

Throughout the weekend the Jumbos found themselves in a dogfight with Bates and Colby for fifth through seventh places. With two events left to go on Sunday the teams were separated by less than ten points, an incredibly small margin considering that a first place individual finish is awarded 32 points. Bates was leading Tufts by one point, 806 to 805, while Colby was ready to pounce if either team slipped up, standing at 798.5 points.

In the end it was Bates who won the battle, finishing with 927 points. Tufts took sixth for the second straight year with 875 points, ahead of Colby's 857.5 points. Williams won its third NESCAC Championship by well over 300 points, keeping the title for the third straight year. Taking second through fourth were Middlebury, Amherst, and Hamilton, respectively. For the most part the standings were similar to last year's.

"We had unbelievable efforts from the whole team," coach Nancy Bigelow said. "Although swimming is largely an individual sport, we had a really exciting battle with both Bates and Colby till the end."

Competing in her first NESCAC Championship, freshman Meghan Wallach made an immediate impact with a fourth place finish on Friday in the 50 yard butterfly. Then, on Saturday, she took sixth in the 100 yard butterfly in a personal best 1:00.36. All news was not good for Wallach, however, as she just missed out on her ticket to the NCAA Championships. In order to qualify for the event Wallach had to swim 1:00.29 or better. To finish the weekend she competed in the 100 yard IM and took fourth place once more.