While Saturday marked Senior Day for the women's swimming and diving team, a combined team effort from all years contributed to the 164-136 victory over rival MIT.
Not only were there several swimmers who won multiple events, but some of those first-place finishes were followed with a fellow Jumbo finishing second, which garnered enough early points to keep the Engineers at a safe distance.
Sophomore Meredith Cronin had a total of three first-place finishes. She won the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 2:15.71, the 1,000 freestyle with a time of 10:43.38, and the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:02.89. Junior Michelle Caswell (1:06.48) finished second in the 100 backstroke.
Tufts finished one-two-three in the 200 backstroke with senior tri-captains Renee Nicholas (2:18.49) and Monika Burns (2:24.38) coming close behind Cronin.
Amongst the other back-to-back finishes were the 100 breaststroke won by Nicholas (1:12.29) and senior Allison Palomaki (1:12.95) and the 200 breaststroke won by junior Katie Swett with a time of 2:35.99. Palomaki placed second with a time of 2:36.93 and senior tri-captain Claire Pigula (2:40.72) finished fifth, padding the Jumbos' point total.
With a time of 2:17.69, Nicholas also won the 200 individual medley, while Swett contributed to another one-two finish by following with a time of 2:19.76.
The high number of Tufts' strong finishes contributed heavily to their sound defeat of the Engineers, who had defeated the Jumbos in their previous two meets.
"I think that's a part of the reason why we won," Nicholas said. "We didn't just have one finisher in an event, but we had two or three. If you only get first place, that's less points than finishing both second and third."
Nicholas, who won two events, felt a little extra motivation on Senior Day. The Jumbo juniors decorated Hamilton Pool and the locker room, and the home crowd was filled with the familiar faces of friends and family. Nicholas remembers her last home meet fondly.
"I was just trying to enjoy [the meet] and remember why we put all the hours into practicing," she said. "I was trying to make a lasting memory of this rather than getting upset of it being over...Everyone was more excited rather than sad. We wanted to have a great last home meet. We wanted to have a great last memory of Hamilton Pool."
On a day to celebrate the team's past, Maureen O'Neill gave a bright glimpse of its future. The freshman took home two events yet again for the Jumbos, the 50-yard freestyle (in 24.98 seconds) and the 100-yard freestyle (in 54.87). Fellow freshman Megan Kono added her own victory by finishing the 500 free in 5:11.93.
It was the same old story on the diving boards, with senior Kendall Swett finishing in first place in the 3-meter event with a 327.75 score. MIT's Doria Holbrook gave her quite the competition, however, and ended up taking the 1-meter title with a 304.73.
Prior to the meet, Swett had mentioned how facing MIT would not be as stressful as it could be, since the diving team practices at MIT's pool and sees them frequently. The close finish, therefore, was not much of a surprise.
"It will be kind of more relaxed [against MIT]," she said prior to the meet. "We're not nervous because we practice every day against them. They know what dives we do and we know what they do."
Wheaton will post the next challenge for the Jumbos before they head into more competitive waters at the Middlebury Invitational, but knowing what's in store for the women against Wheaton, there is no time for looking ahead of their most immediate concern.
"Wheaton beat MIT earlier this December," said coach Nancy Bigelow, who won the Heights Award this past week for her contributions to women's athletics. "They're another strong team we'll have to face. 'They have strength in sprints especially. We'll have to pull together as a team across the board."
