Four members of the women's swimming and diving team headed south hoping to make a splash at the Div. III National Championships hosted by the University of Houston this weekend.
The team got off to a solid start yesterday, as freshman diver Lindsay Gardel and junior Kendall Swett both made finals in the 1-meter diving competition, with Gardel posting a total score of 392.40, good for eighth place, and Swett following closely behind her with a ninth-place 392.35 performance. Results from the final were not posted in time for print.
First-day action on the swimming front did not go quite as well as far as results were concerned. Having qualified for nationals in her 400 IM, senior tri-captain Jess Bollinger swam the 500-meter freestyle yesterday, finishing the preliminary round in 5:18.75, good for 37th-place out of a field of 38. Kenyon freshman Danielle Arad won the event in 4:56.56.
Senior tri-captain Chloe Young-Hyman was also unable to garner points for her team after a 31st-place middle-of-the-pack finish in yesterday's 50 free with a time of 24.66 seconds. For one of the region's top swimmers, finishing more than a second behind the victor - Kenyon sophomore Elizabeth Carlton - was surely a humbling experience.
Despite the tough competition, the group is hopeful that it can pull away with some successful finishes today and tomorrow.
"I just want [the athletes] to do their best and be satisfied with their performance, while still having a lot of fun," coach Nancy Bigelow said. "It is such an honor that I want them to enjoy it."
Although the athletes may be just trying to take in the experience, most of them are no strangers to the national swimming scene.
Swett, though only a junior, has the most nationals experience on the team, setting a meet record in the 3-meter dive with 489.00 points, while finishing third in the 1-meter dive last year. After having narrowly edged out her chief competitor, MIT junior Doria Holbrook, at last year's Nationals, Swett will face-off against her foe on the national stage for another time.
On the other hand, as Swett transferred to Tufts before this season, Young-Hyman is the only returning Jumbo from last year's national squad, in which she finished in 17th-place in the 100 breaststroke, a mere 0.01 seconds separating her from an All-American plaque. This year she is seeded 15th in the race and hopes to overcome that barrier this weekend, swimming the last races of her collegiate career.
In addition to swimming in the 50 free held yesterday, Young-Hyman will compete in the 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard breaststroke today and tomorrow. While the 100-yard breaststroke offers Young-Hyman her best chance for success, she still has the potential for a breakout race in the other event.
"My goal is just to swim as best as I can," Young-Hyman said. "I've had strep throat, but I'm finally feeling better today. I just want to go out have fun and support my teammates."
Young-Hyman will be supported by Bollinger, the Jumbos' best distance swimmer, who is seeded 20th in her main event, the 400 IM. She will also be swimming the 500-yard and 1650-yard freestyle, two events in which she has had considerable success this year. Bollinger hit the provisional national qualifying standard her freshman year, but her sophomore and junior years were relatively disappointing.
"Jess certainly deserves this as she has worked really hard for the last four years," Bigelow said. "Everything just really fell into place for her with the 400 IM and I definitely couldn't be happier for her."
And while the crew is composed of three veterans, there is one freshman trying to make a name for herself as well. Gardel has consistently finished second or third during the regular season meets and finished third in both the 1- and 3-meter dives at the NESCAC championships. The NESCAC meet was Gardel's first experience at championship-level diving, where each competitor dives 11 times in preliminaries and then repeats six more in finals. Her ability at NESCACs in this format bodes well for her hopes at Nationals, and her performance yesterday certainly assuaged any championship jitters.
"She was really nervous and didn't really know what to expect," Young-Hyman said. "But she dove really well [yesterday]."
But for Young-Hyman and Bollinger, this will be the last chance to shine, and they are hoping to make the most of it.
"I went in to NESCACs thinking it might be my last meet, now that I know that this really is the last meet of my career, I'm just going to give it my all, however things turn out," Young-Hyman said.
