Securing an early victory, the women's swimming and diving team glided past Brandeis 156.5 to 116.5 in Tuesday's contest at Hamilton Pool.
With victories in all but three events, the team finished the first half of the 2006-07 campaign at 4-1 and confidently heads into the second half of its schedule.
"I thought we did really well," senior tri-captain Chloe Young-Hyman said. "It was our fourth dual meet in a row and I think everyone was pretty tired because of exams and the end of school. So considering [that], everyone performed excellently."
Young-Hyman anchored two first-place relays and swam to a three-second victory in the 100 breaststroke, with a time of 1:10.30, which places her only a few seconds off the NCAA qualifying time.
"[Nationals] is one of those things where I don't want to think about it too much," Young-Hyman said. "All I can do is train as hard as I can and work as hard as I can, and hopefully it will work out."
Young-Hyman participated in the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relay along with sophomores Michelle Caswell and Katie Auerbach and senior Eva Johnson. The team won the medley behind the strength of Caswell's backstroke and Young-Hyman's breaststroke legs. The Jumbos took second in the 200 freestyle, but by that point, the meet had already been locked up, and the event was not scored.
Freshman Emily Japlon earned her first-ever collegiate victory with a win in the 100 freestyle (57.01) and took second in the 50 freestyle (26.59). Japlon's first college win is part of a banner year for the Tufts freshman class. Classmate Meredith Cronin got a win in her fourth consecutive meet, swimming to victory in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:29.51.
"Meredith has been contributing from the get-go," coach Nancy Bigelow said.
Senior tri-captain Jess Bollinger, who has had great success in distance events this year, swam shorter events this meet but didn't miss a beat, winning both the 200 freestyle and the 200 backstroke in times of 2:02.67 and 2:19.96, respectively. This marks the third multiple-win meet for Bollinger this season.
"I think a large part of her doing extremely well this fall is that she's been training hard," Young-Hyman said. "She trained all summer, and as a senior, this is her last opportunity to go out there and swim, and she wants take advantage of it."
In what has become nearly a weekly occurrence, junior Kendall Swett smashed both Tufts' diving records. Swett scored 289.8 points off the 1-meter board, and 308.63 points off the 3-meter board to win both events for Tufts.
"Kendall just sets such a high standard for herself and the other freshmen divers," Bigelow said. "She's just such a wonderful role model. All of the divers want to be the best they can be and, watching Kendall, they see what hard work is necessary to succeed."
The Jumbos also notched second-place finishes in both diving events with freshman Kelsey Bell in the 1-meter and fellow classmate Kara Lindquist in the 3-meter. Both Bell and Lindquist made strong strides for qualifying for nationals. In order to qualify at this stage in the season, divers must hit the national qualifying standards twice. Bell hit it for the first time on the 1-meter dive Tuesday, and Lindquist missed the mark by a mere half-point.
Other Jumbo victories came in the 200 breaststroke, where junior Alison Palomaki showed signs of returning back to top form, with a 2:35.99 finish. Senior Eva Johnson also claimed victory in the 50 freestyle, swimming 26.48; and Caswell, now almost fully recovered from her bout with pneumonia, won the 100 backstroke, with a time of 1:04.98, followed by sophomore Kayla Burke two seconds later.
After an early hiccup against Trinity, Tufts has performed well at all of its dual meets this fall, and with the help of a training trip to Aruba this winter break, it should be in prime position to take on their NESCAC rivals as a team and reach national qualifying times individually.
"[Over winter break], the divers will work on better consistency and dives with higher degrees of difficulty," Bigelow said. "As for swimming, we're going to get into better shape so that when we race we have a lot more left in our tanks."
