The women’s swimming team traveled to Middlebury over the weekend for the annual NESCAC Championships, which were held Feb. 19-21. Looking to build on last year’s ninth-place finish, the team instead remained in the same spot, placing ninth out of the 11 NESCAC squads. Wesleyan did have a pair of swimmers receive all-NESCAC honors in Cara Madden ’11 and Cara Colker-Eybel ’13, and three school records fell during the three-day event.

Colker-Eybel broke her own program record in the 200 indi­vidual medley on the first day of competition, attaining a national “B” cut time of 2:09.07 in the prelims, over three seconds faster than her previous team mark. She went on to place fifth in the race with a time of 2:09.28, and three of the four swimmers finish­ing ahead of her were members of eventual champion Williams. Madden took third in the 50 back, clocking in :27.76, just 0.11 seconds shy of her program record. Niki Holtzman ’10 added 25 points to the Cardinals’ total with a fifth-place finish in the 50 fly, finishing in :26.58.

Colker-Eybel was the top performer for Wesleyan on Saturday, placing third in the 100 fly with a national “B” cut time of :57.88 and securing all-NESCAC laurels. In addition, Madden took eighth in the 100 back with a time of 1:00.18. Diver Naima Ford ’11 recorded a pair of eighth-place finishes on the final day, racking up a score of 365.10 in the one-meter and 341.85 in the three-meter dives. Colker-Eybel added a seventh-place finish in the 100 free, clocking in 53.79 seconds.

The Cardinals’ free relay squad of Madden, Ally Anderson ’13, Holtzman, and Colker-Eybel combined to set a pair of school records in the meet. The quartet took sixth in the 200 free relay with a time of 1:38.81 and added a fifth-place showing in the 400 free re­lay (3:36.15); the Cardinals’ 3:35.63 showing in the prelims shattered the previous school record. In addition, the Wesleyan foursome of Madden, Sam Santaniello ’13, Colker-Eybel, and Anderson placed 10th in the 400 medley relay (4:06.93), and the quar­tet of Emily Goettsche ’12, Rachel Cohen ’12, Holtzman, and Katie Havlovic ’13 took 11th in the 200 medley relay (1:54.98).

Overall, Wesleyan compiled 605 team points to take ninth in the meet, 11.5 points behind eighth-place Bowdoin (a team the Cardinals defeated 168-131 during the season). Two other teams Wesleyan trounced during the season finished in the top five: fourth-place Tufts (1070 points), which fell to the Cardinals 162-137, and fifth-place Colby (936 points), a 171-128 loser to Wesleyan. Williams won its 10th straight NESCAC crown with a team score of 1954 points, 578 points ahead of second-place Amherst (the largest margin in history).

Wesleyan’s best showing at the NESCAC Championships remains the sixth-place showing by the 2007-08 squad. Middlebury also hosted the Championships in 2004-05, when the Cardinals placed eighth overall.