There will be no shortage of star power when the women's swimming and diving NESCAC Championships get underway tomorrow at Wesleyan.
The Tufts squad will have to go toe-to-toe with all of their league rivals, three of whom - Amherst, Williams and Middlebury - finished in the top 10 at Nationals last season. Though they have no illusions of taking home the championship that has gone to the Ephs for the past seven years, the Jumbos do believe that if they swim to their greatest capabilities, they will at least be among the top five finishers.
"The battle for fourth place will be tight between Tufts, Colby and [Conn. College]," coach Nancy Bigelow said.
Though Colby and Conn. College have been perennial rivals for the Jumbos, because of how the schedule worked out, they never got the chance to square off against them this season. In fact, aside from meets against Trinity, Wesleyan and Williams, the Jumbos have not faced off against any NESCAC teams.
"We're usually in a runoff with Colby and Conn. College for whatever place in the NESCACs," senior tri-captain Claire Pigula said. "This year it's hard to tell [how we compare] because we haven't swum against them this year."
In meets like this one, the most important quality of a team is getting a high quantity of top finishers, as usually, the teams with the greatest depth prevail.
"In a dual meet, you can get by with less depth," Pigula said. "The more people you have scoring in the top eight and top 16, the better - you'll probably win."
The meet could come down to which of Colby's and Tufts' respective standouts perform the best. The Mules have a breaststroke extraordinaire in senior Kelly Norsworthy on their side, which gives them the edge over Jumbos in that department. Norsworthy won all three of her breaststroke events in the 2007 NESCACs - including the 50-yard breaststroke, in which she broke the pool record with a time of 29.55 seconds - and now, she looks to do it again.
Tufts has its own NESCAC record-breaker, however, in senior diver Kendall Swett. She won both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events at NESCACs last year with a record-breaking performance in the 1-meter dive and a near-record-breaker in the 3-meter.
Despite her success, Swett still sees room for improvement after last season's wins. She suggests that perhaps her performance wasn't as satisfactory as the numbers show.
"I want to do a much more complete set like I've been doing the last couple of meets," she said. "I did well last year, but I think I can do better so I can be proud of how I finish."
With sophomore Lindsay Gardel back in better health after a recent bout of sickness, the Jumbos look to score a lot of points in the diving department, which might put them over both Conn. College and Colby.
The team has also had tremendous success in freestyle events this season with its distance swimmers proving to be valuable assets. Freshmen Maureen O'Neill and Megan Kono, along with three other classmates, will be making their first trip to NESCACs. If both O'Neill and Kono can swim as well as they have all season long, they will be sure to garner some decent finishes in their respective events.
As far as the rest of the meet goes, it seems that it will be another year with another Williams championship. Though Amherst has gone undefeated this season at 7-0, as opposed to Williams' 4-2 dual meet record, it seems improbable that any team in the NESCAC can topple a team as deep as Williams.
The Jeffs made it close at NESCACs last year as they lost by a slim margin (152.5-147.5), and they do have senior sensation Brittany Sasser on their side, but the Ephs have too much firepower.
"I'm not telling the girls out there to go and win the NESCAC championship," Amherst coach Nick Nichols said. "I'm telling them to do the best they can."
Nichols sees his team performing well in the relays and in the backstroke where Sasser has dominated. Sasser was the Swimmer of the Meet last year at NESCACs, and she picked up right where she left off this past season by owning the top time in the nation in both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke. She also holds all the NESCAC Championship records in every breaststroke event.
"She is a backstroker, but she does relays as well," Nichols said. "She's really versatile - she can swim a little bit of everything and everything really well."
Though this might translate well in dual meets or at NCAAs, when it comes to NESCACs, Nichols is being realistic and knows that it will be an uphill battle to dethrone Williams.
