The past three weeks have been quite successful for the swimming and diving team, as the men have posted a 7-2 record and the women claimed victory in six of the past 11 contests since the New Year. The team’s success improves the records of the men’s and women’s teams to 12-3 and 11-6 respectively.
Before arriving back on campus, the team traveled to Puerto Rico for a training trip. While there, the Cardinals had the opportunity to face some opponents from outside of New England. The men faced and defeated SUNY-Cortland and Wisconsin-Eau Claire, both DIII athletics powerhouses, and the women faced those two teams as well as St. Catherine and Western Connecticut. Some of the highlights of the meet were freshman Erik Underwood’s dominating performance in the 400-meter freestyle and the women’s victory in the 200-meter medley relay.
On Jan. 15, the Cardinals faced their toughest test of the season against two NESCAC foes, Tufts and Williams, the most dominant swimming and diving programs in the conference.
One of the most exciting races of the day was Ben Byers’s ’07 victory in the 1650-yard freestyle over the All-American from Williams, Stephen Spinelli. Wesleyan’s other winners were Kate Krems’s ’08 who took the 100-yard Butterfly, and Amanda Shapiro ’08, who took the 200-yard individual medley.
The team got back to its winning way on Jan. 21 as both the men and women defeated Clark, Colby-Sawyer, and Connecticut College at the Freeman Athletic Center. Some highlights included Carly Bollinger’s ’09 victory in the 200-yard individual medley, which came down to the final strokes, and Will Hasty’s ’08 blazing final 50 yards (30.82 seconds) in the 200-yard backstroke to pull away from a competitor from Connecticut College. The men’s and women’s teams’ victories in the 200-yard Medley Relay were also impressive.
Most recently, the teams faced Colby and Bowdoin at home. The men defeated both opponents, and the women defeated Bowdoin, but lost to Colby. The women’s victory over the Bowdoin squad was by the slimmest of margins, as the Cardinals pulled out a 146-144 win. Key points were provided for the team when Caitlin Bethlahmy ’09 pulled out second place in the 500-yard freestyle over Jessica Horstkotte of Bowdoin.
The Cardinals return to action on Feb. 4 for their final dual meet of the season, at the Coast Guard Academy, before resting up two weeks to get ready for the NESCAC Championships on Feb. 24-26, which will be held at Williams College.
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