The long weekend starts a day early for the women's swimming and diving team.
The Jumbos begin competition in the three-day NESCAC Championship today at Bowdoin, with preliminaries taking place today and Saturday and finals occurring on Sunday. The Jumbos are aspiring to a top-five finish, hoping to eclipse their sixth-place finish in last year's NESCACs.
"The goal is to go out there and do the best job we can individually, just to score the most points we can," coach Nancy Bigelow said.
Each non-relay event has preliminaries either today or Saturday to set the groupings for Sunday, when the 24 swimmers allowed on each team's championship roster are separated into three groups, the top eight preliminary times swim in the final, the next eight swim in the consolation final and the final eight swim in the pre-consolation final.
The top finisher in the final earns 32 points, and the points are then awarded on a descending scale. Even if an athlete's time in a consolation race surpasses a time set in a final, she cannot be awarded a higher score than a swimmer in that final. The relays function similarly, but are worth twice as many points than individual events.
Last year, despite a sixth place result, the Jumbos challenged fourth- and fifth-place finishers Colby and Connecticut College, falling short of a fourth place finish by only 8.5 points and a fifth place finish by only two points. Williams was the 2005 NESCAC Champion, followed by Amherst and Middlebury. The top three look like favorites to repeat this year, as perennial powerhouse Williams has proved unbeatable once again. Middlebury and Amherst also carried over a lot of talent from last season and will likely battle for second and third.
The contest for fourth is where the real logjam begins. Tufts, Colby, Connecticut College, and Wesleyan all have legitimate chances at fourth place. Tufts has defeated both Connecticut College and Wesleyan earlier this season, but these victories were in tri-meets and occurred at a stage in the season when all three teams were still training hard through meets. Additionally, since the NESCAC Championships encompass all eleven NESCAC schools, it is more difficult to score than in dual or quad meets. So although the Jumbos' victories over these teams are significant, they are not predictors of the weekend's results.
Tufts is bringing back many veterans to NESCACs. Junior Chloe Young-Hyman finished fifth in the 50-yard breaststroke, seventh in the 100 breaststroke and 12th in the 200 breaststroke last year, in addition to swimming in a multitude of relays. Young-Hyman's best performances this year, although slower than her previous NESCAC performances, would have earned points in five separate individual events last year, the three in which she did score along with the 50 and 100 freestyle. The junior poses a finals threat in whatever combination Bigelow decides to swim her.
Senior tri-captain Meghan Wallach is also no stranger to the NESCAC Championships. Last year Wallach scored in the 50, 100, and 200 butterfly. Like Young-Hyman, many of her times have not yet equaled those of the last year's NESCACs, but that is to be expected when the team is training through meets. The taper, or rest period, preceding the Championships should allow Wallach to swim the same or better times than last year.
Other notable returnees include sophomore Alison Palomaki, senior Katie Mims, and senior tri-captains Kristen Hyland and Jess Schwartz.
The NESCAC championship is the culmination of the Jumbos' season. This past week the team has tapered in order to be in peak form and focused on non-physical aspects of the races.
"We've been doing a lot of visualization and relaxation exercises," Wallach said.
The NESCAC Championship is also the best and last opportunity to post NCAA Championship qualifying times. The NCAA Division III Championships are in Minneapolis, Minn., the weekend of March 9. While individual national qualifying times are possible for a few members of the team, everyone is more focused on the task at hand.
"There's always a possibility for Nationals, but right now we're focused on this meet," Wallach said.
