After returning from a winter training trip in Florida on Jan. 15, the Tufts women's swimming and diving team immediately entered the waters, opening the second half of its season the next day in a NESCAC tri'minus;meet against host Wesleyan and national powerhouse Williams, ultimately falling to both squads.
While the Jumbos, who lost 162'minus;137 to the Cardinals and 175'minus;115 to the Ephs, were tired from the return from their recent training trip, Tufts dominated the competition on the diving boards. Senior Lindsey Gardel won the 1'minus;meter platform dive and finished second in the 3'minus;meter dive, while freshman Noa Palmon contributed with a strong third'minus;place performance on the 3'minus;meter boards.
'We were all exhausted from the training trip,' Gardel said. 'None of us had our best performances because we were all so tired.'
In the swimming events, senior tri'minus;captain Meredith Cronin finished second in the 200'minus;yard backstroke and swam the opening leg of the 400'minus;yard freestyle relay, in which the combination of Cronin, freshman Lizz Grainger, junior Maureen O'Neill and sophomore Courtney Adams also earned a second place finish.
The Jumbos also had a strong showing in the 100'minus;yard butterfly, in which sophomore Katie Russell rang in second, closely followed by classmate Valerie Eacret. Fellow sophomore Paulina Ziolek also had a strong showing in the 100'minus;yard breaststroke, finishing in third place and under a second out of the runner'minus;up slot.
Tufts was returning from Florida before making a subsequent trip down to Connecticut. During the training trip, the team worked hard in the unusually cold Fort Lauderdale winter, with two'minus;a'minus;day practices both in the pool and on dry land. The Jumbos used the trip to develop and enhance team unity, and to get into better physical condition.
'It was really cold, and we weren't in the pool as often as we were used to, so it wasn't as helpful as it had been in years past,' Gardel said.
The Jumbos will also be buoyed by the return of juniors O'Neill and Megan Kono this semester. The duo should help Tufts in the middle distance and sprint events and aid the Jumbos' depth across the roster.
'We have a lot of our juniors returning from abroad, so hopefully this will help with our performances down the road,' said Gardel.
The next meet for Tufts is against rival MIT on Saturday at the Hamilton Pool.
'This is one of our favorite meets of the season, against MIT at Tufts, and we have been looking forward to it,' Gardel said. 'MIT have a very good team, so it will be a good challenge.'
