The first 10 events of Wednesday's Tufts-Wellesley women's swim meet were evenly matched, but by the conclusion of the 12th, the Jumbos had sealed their seventh win over the Blue in as many years.
Although the meet was much closer than Tufts' 178-122 win last season, Wednesday's 161-133 win over the Blue marked Tufts' second dual-meet win of the season and handed the 2-0 Jumbos momentum heading into tonight's MIT Invitational.
While Tufts had emerged victorious in the previous six meetings, the meet was far from a lopsided win and was not decided until sophomore Meredith Cronin recorded a first-place 2:17.14 in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing ahead of junior Michelle Caswell (2:19.57) and junior Kayla Burke (2:21.17).
"We knew coming into the meet that Wellesley was really excited to give us a run for our money," senior tri-captain Monika Burns said. "[Coach Nancy Bigelow] was a coach there many years ago, and it's a big rivalry. We knew we had to fight for it. It was really exciting because both teams were giving it their all."
Midway through the meet, freshman Maureen O'Neill boosted her team with a record-breaking performance in the 50m freestyle.
"To do it so early in the season and so early in her career, it's incredible," Bigelow said.
Though O'Neill's time of 24.53 seconds broke Alaina Thiel's (LA '07) mark of 24.60 and put her just .07 seconds away from the NCAA Div. III "B" cut mark, it wasn't enough for first place in the meet. Wellesley also received an impressive rookie performance, as freshman Cathy Poon notched a 24.32 to hit the NCAA cutoff mark of 24.46, giving her the fourth-best time in that event in Div. III this season and securing the first-place finish in the event.
The Jumbos also received yet another impressive performance from an upperclassman. Once again, senior Kendall Swett stole the show, surpassing NCAA qualifying times with first-place finishes in the 1-meter dive (288.67) and the 3-meter (276.76).
"It was definitely a breakthrough in terms of the way I was competing," Swett said. "I focused on having more aggressive jumps and not just being afraid of making mistakes."
Cronin stayed solid throughout the meet, notching a first-place finish in the 100 backstroke and turning in a second-place finish in the 1,000 free, finishing just one second shy of her personal record with a time of 10:45.25.
"I went 20 seconds faster than I swam two weekends ago at the Trinity meet - I missed it by one second," Cronin said. "It was kind of disappointing [not getting the record], but I hadn't expected to go that fast anyway. It was more exciting to know that I'm faster this season than I was last season."
Cronin's performance seemed to spark the Jumbos as they went on to win the next two events. Freshman Megan Kono won the 200 free (1:59.22) while Cronin placed first in the 100-yard backstroke (1:03.46).
The Blue came roaring back and won their next three events, at which point the Jumbos found themselves trailing their rivals 71-60 near the halfway point.
"We realized how close we were at the half and that we could still win, and when we realized this, we decided to pull together and finish really strong," senior tri-captain Claire Pigula said. "Everyone rallied, and we ended up winning by almost 30 points."
Although the team's first-place finishes accounted for much of its point total, the team's depth was also a major factor.
"The crucial points that made the difference were when we would come in fourth and fifth rather than seventh and eighth," Burns said.
"Meets that are really close like this one - it's important for every single person to work really hard," Pigula added. "First place counts for a lot of points, but they score up to fifth place, so every finish counts and every point matters."
With that mentality in mind, the team will hit the water for its first multi-team meet tonight at MIT.
"It's really good for us to have Wellesley right before this weekend because they're really good competition, and it's great to have this momentum carry us into [tonight] and Saturday," Pigula said. "We're going to be facing some good teams, so to have this energy going will be an advantage."
