The women's swimming and diving team picked up two more victories last week to push its overall record to 4-1. The Jumbos visited Wellesley College last Wednesday and emerged with a 169-129 victory. The squad bettered that outcome on Saturday as they beat Bowdoin, 171-125.
At Wellesley, the Jumbos won ten of the meet's sixteen events and came up with many strong second-place finishes. Particularly noteworthy were the performances of senior tri-captain Meghan Wallach, junior Chloe Young-Hyman and freshman Michelle Caswell, who all won two events apiece. On top of their individual wins, the three, along with senior Katie Mims, teamed up to win the 200-yard medley relay.
Wallach won the 100- and 200-yard butterfly in times of 1:03.35 and 2:19.54, respectively. Young-Hyman finished first in the 100-yard breaststroke and freestyle with times of 1:08.61 and 55.24 seconds, taking the freestyle event by only .05 seconds over Wellesley freshman Carolyn O'Hara. Caswell finished the trio of Tufts' double-winners with a time of 1:02.46 in the 100-yard backstroke and a 2:16.33 showing in the 200-yard backstroke.
Caswell's success was indicative of an excellent day overall for freshmen swimmers. In addition to Caswell's victories, classmate Katie Swett won the 1000-yard freestyle in 11:17.34, Lily Safran came in second in the 500-yard freestyle, and Julia Borque finished second in the 1-meter diving competition. Freshmen also took home six third-place finishes for the Jumbos.
"We really use our freshman right off the bat," coach Nancy Bigelow said. "We're trying to figure out what the best events for them are in college."
The Jumbos' success continued as they headed north to Bowdoin College on Saturday. The team hammered out its most dominant win since a 177-117 win over Conn. College on Nov. 19.
Both the Jumbos and the Polar Bears garnered eight first place finishes overall, but Tufts' superior depth proved deadly for Bowdoin as the Jumbos cruised to an extremely solid 171-125 win.
"Bowdoin has some great swimmers," Bigelow said, "but we have more depth than they do."
Once again, Caswell and Young-Hyman had terrific meets, both cruising to two wins apiece. The duo was also part of a victorious 400-yard medley relay team. Young-Hyman repeated her victories in the 100-yard breaststroke and freestyle events in times of 1:09.36 and 55.78, respectively. Caswell also won the same events as she had in the Wellesley meet, swimming 1:02.27 in the 100-yard backstroke and 2:16.90 in the 200-yard backstroke.
The Jumbos had some new winners on the board, as senior Meghan Wallach won the 200-yard butterfly in 2:19.15, sophomore Allison Palomaki took first in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:32.13, and sophomore Renee Nicholas won the 200-yard IM in 2:18.65.
"We didn't want to underestimate [Bowdoin's] strength, so we definitely stepped it up," Wallach said.
Up next on the Jumbos' schedule is Saturday's matchup against Brandeis. While its success early in the season is a good yardstick of the team's skill, Bigelow said that the ultimate goal is to do well at NESCACs as she cautioned against putting too much stock in early regular-season meets.
"The dual meets are indicators along the way for how we are doing," she said.
