The high-flying Cardinal swimmers flew into Williamstown Friday with plans to avenge last season’s loss, but while one Wesleyan women’s record was broken, the women fell to the Ephs 181-104 and the men lost 178-113.The women kicked off their meet with the 200 medley relay, in which the quartet of co-captain Mikki Columbus ’05, Amanda Shapiro ’08, Kate Krems ’08 and Joanna Tice ’07 broke their own school mark by swimming the course in 1:51.67. However, this performance was only good for second place, as a Williams team beat them by 1.7 seconds.
Despite the runner-up placing, their pace still meets NCAA Division III standards for provisional qualifying (“B” cut).Krems had a particularly strong day, triumphing in both the 100 butterfly and the 200 individual medley. In that race, she, Columbus and Diane Chen ’08 finished 1-2-3. Krems also placed third in the 200 butterfly. For the men, the long-distance events were again a strength as Ben Byers ’07 continued to prove himself as among the best in the NESCAC. His time of 16:02.89 in the 1650-yard freestyle beat the fastest Williams competitor by nearly 42 seconds. He and Rob Mitchell ’06 finished first and third in the 500, with Mitchell seven seconds back. Co-captain Josh Tanz ’06 had another great meet. In the first event, the 200 medley relay, he, Will Hasty ’08, Dan Devine ’06 and co-captain Tom Cleveland ’05 finished second in 1:38.90. He also teamed with Devine, Cleveland and Mike Pepi ’08 to win the 400 free relay in 3:16.92. The Cardinal team in that event, Jeff Stein ’08, Mike Molina ’06, John Haley ’07 and Adam Chamberlain ’07, finished second. Tanz also performed strongly in the butterfly events, finishing a respective first and second in 100 and 200 butterfly events. Cleveland finished fourth in the 50 free (22.47), though he was only .33 seconds behind the winner.
“A lot of our kids got a bit of a wake-up call at the meet, getting spanked around like that,” Byers said. “But basically with a building program like ours, that’s what you’ve got to expect, and every year we manage to eke out a few more points here and there. Hopefully in the next couple of years they won’t be able to roll over us so easily.”
The women’s diving team had a terrific day, with Suzy Morrison ’07 winning the three-meter event with a score of 176.03, followed by Jessica Houghton ’08 in third with 143.83. The duo also finished 2-3 in the one-meter dive with respective scores of 183.08 and 160.89.
Last Friday’s meet marked the end of the 2004 portion of the season for the Cards. During the break, they will hold a week-long training camp in San Diego.
“As bad as it was, it was a good meet to end our winter season on because it leaves us with some motivation,” Byers said. “I don’t think anyone is happy with getting killed like that, and hopefully everyone will take it as an inspiration to work their butts off during our training trip. We’re all looking forward to San Diego.”
When they hit the Freeman pool again on Jan. 12 against Trinity, expect to see a faster, sleeker team ready to win some meets.
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