As has been the story for many of the Tufts athletic teams this weekend, the women's swimming and diving team returned from the NESCAC Championships on Sunday with a fourth-place finish, behind a convincing Williams win.
Scoring 1878.5 points, Williams won its sixth consecutive NESCAC title, followed by Middlebury (1583), Amherst (1353.5), and Tufts in fourth (931). Connecticut College rounded out the top five with 808 points.
After a sixth-place finish last season, the top-five placing fit the team's pre-meet expectations exactly.
"We were ecstatic," junior Chloe Young-Hyman said. "Williams, Amherst, and Middlebury are all sort of in a league of their own."
Young-Hyman highlighted a weekend of exceptional performances, finishing third in the 50-yard breaststroke in 30.24, her best of the season by almost two seconds. She also finished fifth in the 100 breaststroke with a provisional national qualifying time of 1:06.94, meaning she could be headed to Minneapolis for the NCAA Championships.
"At this point, it really depends on how the rest of the Div. III conference meets went this past weekend," Young-Hyman said.
Young-Hyman also competed on three relay teams, the seventh-place 200 freestyle, the 200 medley and the 400 freestyle.
"Chloe's been getting faster and faster all season," senior tri-captain Meghan Wallach said. "She definitely stepped up and got her goal times."
Freshman Michelle Caswell also had a noteworthy performance. In addition to competing on the three relay teams with Young-Hyman, Caswell finished eighth in the 50 backstroke and 10th in the 100 backstroke, with times of 28.93 and 1:01.81 respectively.
Sophomore Alison Palomaki finished ninth in the 50 breaststroke in a time of 31.70.
Wallach also contributed to Tufts' success, swimming to a seventh-place tie in the 50 butterfly and an 11th-place finish in the 100 butterfly as well as competing in several relays. Sophomore Renee Nicholas also swam well, finishing 10th in the 200 IM in 2:13.41 and ninth in the 400 IM in 4:42.58.
Freshmen Katie Swett and Lily Safran Swett swam in the first championship race of their collegiate careers. Swett finished 16th in the 500 freestyle and 11th in the 400 IM, earning 11 points for the Jumbos. Safran finished 10th in the 1650 freestyle and 22nd in the 500 freestyle.
On the diving squad, freshman Julia Borque finished seventh in the 1 m platform event, scoring 309.10 points. Senior Jess Schwartz was out of top form due to illness, but still finished eighth in the 3-meter platform, scoring 332.75 points in her last meet.
Despite the Jumbos' strong performance, the Ephs and their star senior Lindsay Payne were the stars of the show. In addition to heading three winning relays, Payne won three individual events, setting NESCAC records in all three. She swam 23.4 in the 50 freestyle, 1:00.54 in the 100 breaststroke, and 50.98 in the 100 freestyle, all automatic national qualifying times.
Tufts' top-five was fueled not by a few great individual performances, but by the Jumbos' depth and experience as a team.
"We had so many people in the top eight [event finals]," Wallach said. "We were definitely one of the teams with the most depth in the conference because we had so many different people coming back for finals."
The fourth-place standing felt in many ways like a victory. It represented the fulfillment of the team goal of a top-five finish and also projected success in future years, given the outstanding contributions from underclassmen.
"We felt like we won," coach Nancy Bigelow said. "Everybody contributed."
