Senior tri-captains Chloe Young-Hyman and Jess Bollinger, as well as the elite diving squad, will lead Tufts to the western part of the state this weekend for the three-day NESCAC tournament held at Williams.
With a fourth-place showing at last year's conference tournament, the squad has a tough road ahead of itself if it wants to equal that performance.
"We would like to swim and dive well and give a 100 percent effort this weekend," coach Nancy Bigelow said. "Williams, Middlebury and Amherst seem to have a pretty solid lock on the top three places, but I think fifth would be a very, very, respectable showing for our group."
As has been the case throughout the season, the diving crew is expected to be at the forefront of the competition. Junior Kendall Swett has won most of her diving competitions this year, never falling lower than second place. Swett transferred to Tufts this year from Lake Forest College following a season where she was an All-American in the one- and three-meter dives, winning the Div. III national championship in the latter. She will be competing in both of those events at the NESCAC championships, where she is favored to bring two first-place finishes back to Medford.
"I'm just trying to relax and have fun and compete better than I have all season, as well as preparing for the upcoming Nationals," Swett said.
The Jumbos' trio of freshmen divers, Lindsay Gardel, Kelsey Bell and Kara Lindquist, will compliment Swett. The rookie divers have all made their presences felt this season, consistently finishing in the top five in both diving events all year
"These are three freshmen who are really, really good, and I think we could all be in the top six," Swett said.
Also integral to Tufts' success will be the performances of Bollinger and Young-Hyman. Both swimmers have anchored the Jumbos all year, and both are experienced in championship meets. Young-Hyman is shouldering a heavy workload, swimming the 50-, 100- and 200-yard breaststroke in addition to the 100-yard freestyle. Young-Hyman qualified for Nationals last year with a fifth-place showing in last year's NESCAC 100-yard breaststroke race and hopes for a similar performance this year.
"This could potentially be my last meet, and I just want to go in and have fun and enjoy the experience," Young-Hyman said. "This is also my last shot at qualifying for Nationals, but it's also more importantly a team competition."
Young-Hyman is seeded third in the race, behind All-American juniors Amanda Shapiro from Wesleyan and Kelly Norsworthy from Colby. Young-Hyman also has a good chance of making the final heat in the 50-yard breaststroke, where she is seeded in the top eight.
Bollinger, too, has a busy weekend ahead of her, where she will be competing in races with distances ranging from 200 to 1650 yards, swimming all three longer-distance freestyle events, as well as the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard backstroke. Bollinger is a strong threat to place in the top eight in both the 1,000- and 1,500-yard freestyle as well as the 400-yard IM.
"Jess Bollinger has been swimming very well all year," Bigelow said. "I think she will have an even better meet than the one she had her freshman year when she made the B-cut for Nationals in the 400 IM."
For the team to swim well, however, it will depend on strong performances across the board, not just among the top swimmers.
"We will need all of our front-line kids to swim their best, girls like [freshman] Meredith Cronin, [sophomore] Michelle Caswell, [junior] Tia Bassano, [sophomore] Katie Swett, [senior] Eva Johnson, [freshman] Emily Japlon and [junior] Claire Pigula," Bigelow said. "Everyone is going to have to swim and dive well to score points. All 24 competitors are going to be key."
The NESCAC championship is the culmination of the team's season and the last meet for the individuals who failed to qualify for Nationals. The Jumbos will enter the meet fully tapered and in a position to shave several seconds off their times from earlier this season. Like last year, there will be a dogfight for places fourth through sixth, where Tufts, Connecticut College and Colby are extremely close.
"The main goal is to have fun. We've all been working extremely hard, and it's hard to go into a final meet and place concrete goals," Young-Hyman said. "It would be really exciting if we could place fourth, and if we all swim our hardest and have our minds in the game, we have a good shot."
