In a season that featured a plethora of extraordinary individual accomplishments, the women's swimming and diving team enjoyed a slew of team successes during its 2007-08 campaign. Among them was a fifth-place finish at the NESCAC Championships in February and a strong showing at the NCAA Championships, in which three members of the team - senior Kendall Swett, sophomore Lindsay Gardel and freshman Megan Kono - all made appearances.
There were plenty of record-breaking performances scattered throughout the season, especially coming from the underclassmen and celebrated diver Swett.
The Akron, Ohio native's greatest accomplishment in her prolific collegiate career came at the NCAA Championships over spring break, where she broke her own national record in the 3-meter dive (509.3) en route to her second career national championship in that dive. Swett capped off the meet with a victory in the 1-meter dive, giving her a sweep of both national titles.
Swett also broke her own 3-meter record and set pool, meet and NESCAC records at the NESCAC Championships, where she amassed 536.85 points.
Though she transferred to Tufts in her junior year, two years was more than enough for Swett to leave a lasting legacy. Her diving coach Brad Snodgrass found her transition to Tufts to be perhaps her greatest achievement of all.
"I really need to emphasize that [Swett] came to Tufts for all the right reasons - academic reasons," he said. "It took a lot of bravery to transfer and to do it successfully, and my hat's off to her for taking that step and making it all work out."
On the swimming side, the intensely talented duo of freshmen Kono and Maureen O'Neill ripped through the water to assert themselves as two of the stronger swimmers on the roster in only their first year of collegiate competition.
While Kono mainly dominated the long-distance freestyles, O'Neill specialized in shorter distances. O'Neill managed to break her own school record in the 50-yard freestyle three times, recording her best time - 24.29 seconds - at NESCACs.
"It was really fun to watch her swim this season," senior tri-captain Claire Pigula said. "She's a freshman, but she just came out and did her thing and broke records."
The other record-breaking freshman, Kono, also shattered a school mark at NESCACs, clocking in with a time of 17:31.65 in the 1,650-yard freestyle.
Kono also holds the program record in the 1,000-yard freestyle, another record that was broken three times this season - first by sophomore sensation Meredith Cronin, who followed up her breakout rookie season with consistently first-rate performances, and then by Kono twice more.
Thanks to their record-breaking performances at NESCACs, the Jumbos came in fifth place out of 11 teams. Pigula recalls how the meet brought out the best in her team.
"Just seeing my teammates' outstanding performances after all this really hard training was amazing," she said. "It was worth it to see everyone really get caught up in the competition and seeing everyone care for each other and the team more than the actual result."
Aside from NESCACs, another pivotal contest in the season was a Nov. 28 dual meet against Wellesley, one which the Jumbos pulled out 161-133. The win was the first real test the team had faced, and it was at Wellesley where the team found its identity.
"The Wellesley meet was important for us because it was the first time we really pulled together as a team and won against great competition," Pigula said.
The Feb. 8-9 Middlebury Invitational was an important tune-up for the conference championship meet - only those who were not going to swim at NESCACs participated, and their performance provided those who would swim in the conference meet with motivation to do well.
"We saw half of our girls tapered and doing so incredibly well, so for us who were going to NESCACs, it got us so pumped up for our own competition two weeks later," Pigula said. "It was a great thing to build on, and we needed it because the NESCACs were our last meet and what we've worked for all year."
Though Pigula is one of 10 seniors who will be graduating this May, the team still has a bright future, especially after seeing what their underclassmen have accomplished this season. Even on the diving side, Swett will have a successor to the diving throne in Gardel, who has proven that she is capable of filling Swett's shoes with a pair of top-five NESCAC finishes.
However, considering how the swimmers emphasize team above all, Pigula sees the Jumbos looking at these losses as challenges and pulling together to make up for it.
"Having seen the team dynamic every year ... this year especially we were all really close and a lot more invested in swimming," she said. "I think that was the most important thing this season."
