Women's Swimming and Diving | Jumbos give top performances in final tune-up before NESCACs

    The women's swimming and diving team took full advantage of the strength of its competition this weekend at the Middlebury Invitational at MIT, posting top times across the board despite sitting numerous competitors out of their best events. Since the meet was not scored, the Jumbos had swimmers who will not be competing at NESCACs swim in their best events while Tufts' top racers took the opportunity to swim in unfamiliar races.
    "Since we're so close to NESCACs, we were just trying to switch it up," senior tri-captain Katie Swett said. "It's definitely psychological, especially since we just finished the end of our hard training. If I was tired this weekend and didn't do well in my best event, it would hurt me psychologically. It's better to leave your good events for the big meet."
    "I like to generally stay away from my event the meet before the conference championship," sophomore Megan Kono added. "You can get into a funk because what's done is done. It wouldn't have been detrimental for me to swim my events, but I think that if it had been a bad race, it would have been harder for me to get back up and have the same confidence that I have now going out of the regular season on such a high note."
    The exceptions were the divers, who performed solidly yet again for the Jumbo squad. Junior diver Lindsay Gardel returned to her winning ways, sweeping both the 1- and 3-meter events. An All-American last year, Gardel looked poised for a return to the NCAA meet in March, blowing away the competition with scores of 191.20 in the 1-meter and 202.65 in the 3-meter. Classmate Kelsey Bell followed suit, finishing second in both events, not far behind Gardel.
    "The divers have been [having a] really crucial season even though we're not always on the same page with them because they train at MIT," Swett said. "We have depth in swimming, but most teams don't have depth in diving. Most teams are lucky to have two, and we have six outstanding divers, so we're really appreciative of the hard work they've done so far."
    While the Jumbos did not post many other winners throughout the two-day event, they were consistently present in the top spots. In 12 out of the 20 events — excluding individual time trials — Tufts placed at least one swimmer in the top three. Freshman Annie Doisneau was the big winner in the pool for the Jumbos, placing first in both one individual event and one relay.
    The stiff competition included NESCAC rivals Middlebury and Williams and local foes Northeastern and MIT, yet the rookie Doisneau continued her outstanding campaign by taking first in the 200-yard individual medley, outdistancing MIT senior Jen Chao by just two seconds. Her final time of 2:13.71 improved on her field-leading seed time by over two seconds as well. Earlier in the meet, Doisneau was the third leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay team, combining with freshmen Courtney Adams and Valerie Eacret as well as sophomore Maureen O'Neill to take first in 3:41.01. Not far behind was the team of Kono, Swett, junior Meredith Cronin and freshman Paulina Ziolek, which finished second.
    Kono, taking a break from her usual long-distance swims, placed second in the 200-yard backstroke despite being seeded fifth entering the final race. The Tufts record holder in the 1000- and 1650-yard freestyle, Kono turned in a 2:13.90 final time at MIT, four seconds better than her original seed time.
    Likewise, O'Neill enjoyed a refreshing change of events, departing from her staple 50-yard freestyle to take part in three additional second-place relay teams. In the Invitational's first final, Swett, Eacret, O'Neill and Cronin took second, falling behind MIT's "A" squad by just .16 seconds.
    O'Neill, Adams, Ziolek and Doisneau closed out the meet with a runner-up finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay, navigating the waters in 1:40.75. Cronin, Ziolek, Eacret and O'Neill placed second in the 200-yard medley relay as well. Rounding out the top finishers for the Jumbos were Swett in the 1000-yard freestyle and junior Lyndsey York in the 1650-yard freestyle, both of whom finished in the runner-up slot.
    Most notably, however, were the performances turned in by some of the swimmers deeper on Tufts' roster, the ones who have already begun tapering and resting their bodies for the end of the season. Still, their ability to succeed at the Middlebury Invitational should prove to be an inspiration for the rest of the squad.
    "It was a great indicator as to how well the girls who have already tapered did," Kono said. "To see people like freshmen Emily Anderson and Hannah Henderson, [sophomore] Abby Fuller, and [senior] Perry Ross, who did amazing[ly] … that's such a great indication that the rest of the team can do well."
    Now, with the dual meets and invitationals behind them, Tufts turns its attention to the biggest meet of the season: the NESCAC championships at Bowdoin. Although the Jumbos have seen national powerhouse Williams twice to this point, they have yet to face Amherst, the defending national runner-up — a team whose only loss, much like their own, has come at the hands of the Ephs.
    The Jumbos competing at NESCACs will begin tapering in the upcoming weeks, resting their bodies in order to be at full strength before the championship push. But that is not to say that Tufts' mind is not squarely fixed on NESCACs, focusing in a total effort to cement its place as one of the best in the conference.
    "It certainly doesn't mean that we're going to take our minds off NESCACs," Swett said. "We're at the pool the same numbers of hours, but we're doing some more visualization drills and doing more resting, working on the small things like starts and turns. We'll be scoring across the board with our great depth, so I think everyone is just excited to go out and see how they can do."