Despite several strong individual performances, the women's swimming and diving team lost its first home meet of the season on Saturday to Keene State. In an almost identical finish to last year's 166-132 loss to Keene, Tufts finished the meet down 163-131.
Senior Jenny Hu took first in all three individual events she competed in, claiming half of the team's total wins Saturday. Her performance earned her NESCAC Co-Performer of the Week honors, which she shared with Conn. College freshman Valerie Urban. Hu won the 100 and 200 breaststroke and the 200 individual medley, and she swam the breaststroke leg of a 200 medley relay that finished just 0.28 seconds out of first. The senior managed all this despite having just recently recovered from a broken pelvis sustained in September.
"I've made a ton of progress in terms of healing and getting back into shape," Hu said. "I was in a wheelchair five weeks ago, but there is definitely a lot of room for improvement. Not training in my preseason has definitely had an impact, but I am focusing on the things I can control from here on out."
Tufts divers were dominant again this weekend, with senior Sami Bloom and freshman Kylie Reiman going one-two in both diving events. Reiman's score of 208.40 in the one-meter event just beat out Bloom, who took second with a 206.75. But they switched it up in the three-meter, with Bloom's 275.65 taking first and Reiman's 233.75 taking second.
Reiman and Bloom have been pleased with their contributions to the team score so far this season and hope that their success continues, though they acknowledge that the competition will probably ramp up as they start facing more NESCAC opponents. Still, the dynamic between the two has been beneficial to the Jumbos' efforts in the first two meets.
"I would say Kylie and I have a big sister-little sister relationship," Bloom said. "We push each other to perform our best, but we also are very excited when the other one does well."
Sophomore Sarah Mahoney turned in another strong performance for Tufts on Saturday, swimming well in the long distance events. She won the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:22.86 and finished second in the 1000 freestyle with an 11:01.68.
"Being a distance swimmer, it's hard to have a good start to the season when we only have been in the pool for about three weeks," Mahoney said. "Being close to my best times this early gives me a lot of confidence about the upcoming few months."
Also contributing points to the team score, junior Samantha Sliwinski took second in 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events, while freshman Cassidy Hubert took second in the 100 butterfly. Still, the Jumbos failed to win either of the relays and only won six of the 16 total events. But there are signs that the team's two straight losses will not be indicative of the rest of the season.
"One thing we tend to struggle with is being passed in the last 10 yards of the race, and losing so many points by under half a second can be really frustrating," Mahoney said. "I think overall though the team is showing improvement week after week. Considering this is only our third week of training as compared with Keene's third month, I'd say we did pretty well."
The team has gotten off to a slow start this season, and the Jumbos are still looking for their first win. Women's swimming and diving started last season the exact same way, though, before picking up its first win against Wellesley and going on to finish third in the NESCAC and tie for 51st at the NCAA Championships. Many of the swimmers are still confident that the team will only get better as the season goes on.
"The team has improved in endurance and we have been working on a lot of the technical aspects of racing," Hu said. "Swimming in practice is a lot different from racing - racing is really a skill, and one where you can only learn from experience. I know that as the season goes on, the girls will only do better and better as they learn from every meet we swim at."
After taking this weekend off for Thanksgiving, the team looks to repeat its feat from last year and earn its first win at Wellesley on Dec. 4.
