Although the women’s swimming and diving team finished next-to-last in the NESCAC Championships last weekend in the Freeman Athletic Center, the Cardinals still had an outstanding day. At least three swimmers, Mikki Columbus ’05, Stephanie Lasby ’06, and Chris Andrews ’07, have made the NCAA “B” cut for the Division III Championship in two weeks. A fourth, Joanna Tice ’07, anticipates receiving an invitation from the NCAA on Thursday.
In spite of the team’s poor official finish, head coach Mary Bolich was very encouraged by the results.
“What we really look for is each person’s improvement over the year, and many of the women swam lifetime bests,” Bolich said. “We broke several team records.”
Tice, ranked eighteenth in the nation in the 50-yard freestyle event, broke her own school record with a time of 24.47 seconds, good for fifth place.
“The NESCAC is basically the fastest Division III conference in the country, so I’m pretty proud of how well I did in this conference considering how fast it is,” Tice said. “I’m just proud that I’m representing Wes at Nationals.”
Andrews also had an outstanding day, finishing in the top eight in all three of her individual freestyle events, the 1650-yard (fifth, 17:52.59), the 1000-yard (third, 10:40.25), and the 500-yard (seventh, 5:12.66).
“If you were swimming in an important event, you could just see people at both ends of your lane cheering for you; it just meant so much,” Andrews said. “In my mile, for the entire twenty minutes, every time I did a flip turn, I could hear people screaming at the end of my lane.”
“We had an awesome senior class this year. They were very supportive of everyone who’s swimming. It wasn’t just the seniors cheering us on,” Columbus said.
Columbus, Tice, and Lasby all swam on a team in the 200-yard free relay that shattered the old Wesleyan record for the event by completing the race in 1:40.18, over two seconds faster than the previous standard. Even so they finished eighth, 3.51 seconds behind the winning quartet from Williams.
Columbus had a very steady weekend as well. She finished sixteenth in the 200-yard Individual Medley and was the top finishing Cardinal in the 200-yard backstroke.
The divers also performed well over the weekend. While none of them qualified for the finals in either the one or the three-meter events, the team as a whole had one of its best days in some time. Susanna Morrison ’07 was the Cardinals’ leading scorer in both semi-finals.
“I think all the divers did really well, and we worked hard all year. I had a few dives that didn’t go as I planned, but overall I think everyone did real well,” Morrison said.
Zoe Goldberg ’04, the diving captain, was especially pleased. This was her first and only time diving in the NESCAC Championships.
“I felt [the judges] scored a little tough, so I don’t think the scores reflect my performance as well,” said Goldberg. “Everyone on the team has made so much progress this year, that I’m really excited for them to move forward over the next two or three years.”
The women’s team season is over, but hopes are high for next year.
“We have five graduating seniors, and we know four are coming Early Decision,” Bolich said. “We’ve set up a great foundation to progress in the conference. We’re very excited about next year.”
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