It was an up-and-down weekend for the women's swimming and diving team at NCAA Nationals, held at the University of Houston this weekend. In the end, the Jumbos finished tied 24th overall, powered by 41 points from its strong diving duo.
Freshman diver Lindsay Gardel won an All-American plaque in the 1-meter dive with her eighth-place finish Thursday, while junior Kendall Swett bounced back from a disappointing ninth-place finish in the 1-meter dive to finish fourth overall in the 3-meter on Saturday. On the swimmers' side, both senior tri-captains Chloe Young-Hyman and Jess Bollinger swam some lifetime best times, but failed to capture All-American titles.
"You have the cream of the crop of Division III at this meet," coach Nancy Bigelow said. "Chloe had three lifetime bests, Jess was sick and still swam well and the divers did a great job."
Gardel's eighth-place finish in the 1-meter dive was perhaps the highlight of the trip for the Jumbos, as she scored 392.40 points in the preliminaries, enough for eighth place and a trip to the finals, in which she also finished eighth, totaling 402.95 points for her overall score. She followed-up that performance with an 11th-place finish in the 3-meter dive.
"I was diving pretty well, and a couple of people missed dives," Gardel said. "It didn't really hit me until I was diving at finals."
The presence of Swett at Nationals was a big help to Gardel, who had looked to the older diver for guidance throughout the year.
"She's a great diver and has been diving for a really long time, so she helped me with a lot of stuff so I didn't have to learn it for myself," Gardel said. "She knows how [Nationals] works and she explained everything to me as it happened."
Indeed, Swett is no stranger to the national scene. She entered the meet as the reigning national champion in the 3-meter dive, and she's also been an All-American in the 1-meter dive. This year, Swett finished ninth in Thursday's 1-meter dive competition with a score of 392.35, a mere .05 points behind her teammate Gardel and just short of a finals berth.
"I felt a lot of pressure, my old coach was there, and it was just a mentally strenuous weekend," Swett said. "I was really, really happy with [my 3-meter dive preliminaries], so that was good, but other than that, it was a really, really, hard weekend."
Swett's 3-meter dive preliminaries were the highlight of her weekend, as she broke her own record by scoring 493.20 points, besting her old score of 489.00. In finals, however, Swett slipped to fourth, turning in a score of 456.05.
"The best part of the weekend was coming back and doing preliminaries really well," Swett said. "I put together the best series of dives that I put together my whole life. I was able to do something that I am really, really proud of."
The Jumbos' two marquee swimmers, Young-Hyman and Bollinger, suffering from illnesses, still turned in respectable times.
Participating in her main event, the 100-yard breaststroke, Young-Hyman swam 1:06.54, a lifetime best, and good for a 17th place finish, just.03 seconds short of 16th place. The .03 seconds separated her from the consolation finals, and an honorable mention All-American plaque. To add to the frustration, Young-Hyman also finished 17th by a narrow margin at last year's Nationals.
"Getting 17th two years in a row kind of sucks, but at the same time, I can't really be that disappointed," Young-Hyman said. "It would have been an honor to be an All-American, but the meet was really fast this year, so there's not much I can do."
Young-Hyman also set personal records in her two other events, the 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard breaststroke, finished 31st in the 50 free with a time of 24.66 and 27th in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:27.24.
"Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better meet, since I was able to swim three lifetime bests," Young-Hyman said.
Bollinger started out her Nationals debut with a decent performance in her first event, the 500-yard freestyle, finishing 37th with a time of 5:18.75. From there, however, the meet took a disappointing turn, as Bollinger swam well over her seed times in the 400-yard IM, her qualifying event, and the 1650-yard freestyle.
In the 400-yard IM, Bollinger swam 4:47.60, a full 10 seconds slower than her best, and in the 1650-yard freestyle, a grueling endurance event, Bollinger swam 18:53.23, compared to her personal best of 18:03.
"At some level Jess is disappointed, but she was also just pleased to be there," Bigelow said. "The events that she swam are just tough to hold onto. It's tough to come back from a shave two and a half weeks ago to do well."
Despite the range of performances by the Tufts' competitors, the Jumbos were proud of their performances in the season's final meet.
"I'm extremely happy," Young-Hyman said of her final collegiate meet. "I feel like this season was a great closure to a great career. The coaching staff is great, and it's an incredible team."
