The women's swimming and diving team finished the first half of its season with an unblemished 3-0 record after a 159-118 dual-meet win over Brandeis Saturday.
The Jumbos started off their dominating performance strong, winning their first five events. Brandeis sophomore Rachel Sawicki then put up a 100-yard butterfly time of 1:02.14 to net Brandeis a first-place finish, but it wasn't enough.
Brandeis won only three total events in the meet with Tufts taking the other 30. The Jumbos finished one-two in three events - the 1-meter dive, 3-meter dive and 500 freestyle - and one-two-three in the 200 and 50 free and the 50-yard backstroke.
"One of our biggest strengths this season is that we have a lot of depth, especially in our freestyle and long-distance events," senior tri-captain Renee Nicholas said. "I'm excited to see how the rest of the season goes."
The non-conference matchup with a weaker Brandeis team allowed Tufts to take liberties with the lineups for each event.
"I think it's a good thing because a lot of times people don't realize that they're good at an event until they see [themselves] in it," Nicholas said. "People can get better at two or three events, but they don't usually get the chance because it would take away from the event they're already needed in."
One swimmer who switched to a new event without missing a beat is sophomore Meredith Cronin. She won her specialty, the 200 breaststroke, with a time of 2:15.26, but also excelled in a new event, the 200 freestyle. Cronin won the 200 free in 2:02.13.
Cronin has been steadily improving this season and will be one of the Jumbos' biggest threats in the second half of the season.
"The 200 back was a really good race for me," Cronin said. "It's the fastest I've gone this season and it's a really challenging race ... I'm faster this season than last season which is nice, so I think the rest of this season's going to be pretty good."
Another two-event winner was freshman Maureen O'Neill, who took the 50 backstroke, with a time of 30.35, and the 100 freestyle, clocking in at 55.91.
The diving squad pitched in with strong performances from senior Kendall Swett and sophomore Lindsay Gardel finishing one-two in both the 1- and 3-meter diving events. For Gardel, it was a special night as she made the national cut on both boards for the first time. She scored 265.52 points in the 1-meter diving event and 272.41 points in the 3-meter event.
"This is the first time she's made both of them, which is good since she's been having some injury problems," Swett said. "It's a good way to finish the fall semester."
The Jumbos managed the statistically-impressive win despite the fatigue and stress that come with finals.
"We had a really stressful week - we were trying to survive," coach Nancy Bigelow said. "We weren't particularly sharp, but we weren't horrendous either."
The Jumbos now have over a month to rest up in preparation for next semester. Their next meet is at Wesleyan on Jan. 19, and they have plenty of work to do before then.
"I think we can work on racing to the walls," Nicholas said. "We get out-touched by the other team, and we need to work on that, as well as not letting the other team beat us right at the last split-second."
"A lot of the swimmers are starting to get tougher mentally, which is important," Bigelow added. "You have to believe in yourself."
