The Cardinals finished their regular season in Freeman on Saturday against the Bears of Coast Guard Academy. It was Senior Appreciation Day for the quintet of Tom Cleveland ’05, Dominik Heynen ’05, Mikki Columbus ’05, Laurel Daen ’05, and Rebecca Chapman ’05. The men faced an uphill battle and were ultimately sunk 157-131, while the ladies blew their opponents out of the water to the tune of 187-96. The men head into NESCAC finals at 6-4 and the women are 7-3.
The men, with dyed blonde hair in honor of Heynen, shot out of the gate like torpedoes. The 200-yard medley relay team of Will Hasty ’08, Dan Devine ’06, Josh Tanz ’06, and Cleveland blasted through the water in 1:38.00, a record for the pool in a dual-meet. Hasty, a backstroke specialist, won both of his solo events, the 100 and 200-yard backstrokes, followed closely by Zach Webster ’06. In the distance freestyle events, the 500 and 1000, the familiar 1-2 finish of Ben Byers ’07 winning with Rob Mitchell ’06 a few seconds behind proved true once again. Byers finished his season undefeated in the distance events. Tanz also had a strong day, winning the 100 butterfly in style with a time of 53.18 seconds.
“It was a bit of a disappointment to us to lose the meet, but we all felt as though we gave it our all, and we kept it as close as we could,” Byers said. “They are a very strong team and we swam our hearts out.”
For the women, it seemed like every salvo they fired hit the mark. They started the day by prevailing in the first six events. The Cards diving squad, led by Susanna Morrison ’07, won in the 1-meter springboard with a total score of 196.35. Morrison also finished second in the 3-meter springboard. Other highlights included Stephanie Lasby ’06 and Diane Chen ’07 finishing 1-2 in the 1000 free, with Lasby finishing nearly 23 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Lasby also competed in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard butterfly, finishing second in both events. Amanda Gordon ’07 won the 200 breaststroke in 2:36.94 seconds and Kate Krems ’08 took the 100 fly. Krems, one of the sensational freshmen who has performed so well this season, also took the 200 fly, and was part of the quartet, along with fellow freshman Amanda Shapiro ’08, Mikki Columbus ’05—the winner of both backstroke events—and Joanna Tice ’07, that opened the meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay.
“Our success today was a team effort,” said Head Coach Mary Bolich. “Stephanie Lasby has really come on of late. Diane Chen had a great day too. [Shapiro’s] success is partially due to her natural talent, but the real reason is her incredible work ethic. When you have her consistency and combine it with daily hard work, it really makes a difference.”
Neither swim team has any event this week, but NESCAC finals are less than three weeks away. The women will don the Lycra once again over the weekend of February 18-20 for their finals at Middlebury. The men have an extra week to prepare for their finals, which they are hosting from February 25-27.
Furthermore, should any swimmers perform below certain standard times set by the NCAA, they may receive invitations to head to the NCAA Division III Championships, which are March 10-12 in Holland, Michigan. So far, Byers has made the B cut in the 1650 freestyle, and Shapiro has mad the B Cut in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke, and the 400 IM. The quartet of Columbus, Shapiro, Krems, and Tice will swim the 200 medley relay.
“I’m confident that both teams will swim very well at NESCACs,” Byers said. “I think both teams are in a very good position to really make their marks at championships this year and have a lot of people qualify for NCAAs with a good chance of scoring well there as well. We are really hoping to get a lot of support at the meet, especially for the men, since it will be here at Wesleyan. It should be very exciting.”
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