Both the men’s and women’s swimming teams enter this season coming off of winning records of 10-5. The men look to improve on their solid record from last season; some highlights from the 2008-09 campaign included placing fifth in the 11-team NESCAC Championships and having diver Dave Wilkinson ’09 qualify for the NCAA Championships.
The men kicked off their season with a win against Bates handily defeating the Bobcats 179-116 in Lewiston. On Nov. 23, the Cardinals faced Amherst for their second meet of the season but fell to the Lord Jeffs 102-139, failing to clinch their first victory against Amherst since 1992. Despite the loss, the Cardinals were still able to win some first-place points. Dan Storms ’10 dominated the waters to win the 200 free with a time of 1:45:45. Kuan Huang ’12 also secured the first-place title in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:00.76.
“The season is off to a great start,” said co-captain Ryan Beck ’10. “We had a great first meet against Bates and had a close loss to Amherst, one of the top teams in the NESCAC. We’ve gained a lot of depth from our freshman class who have filled some major gaps in our program from last year.”
Brendan Fortin ’13 showed off his potential against Amherst with a first place win in the 400 IM with a time of 4:13.47. His closest opponent was 4.6 seconds behind him.
“This weekend we are hosting the Cardinal Invitational and are hoping to put up some great times and fully test out our line-up,” Beck said. “We’re looking forward to having one of our strongest seasons ever and hope to move up our place in the NESCAC.”
The women also began their season with meets against Bates and Amherst. The Cardinal women entered the season having lost six seniors, but the addition of freshman has been positive. Fresh talent will hopefully help the women make their way out of the bottom half of the NESCAC, as last season the Cardinals placed ninth out of the 11 NESCAC teams in the season-ending NESCAC meet.
“With the addition of nine freshman women, and no juniors studying abroad, the team has a lot of potential for a successful season,” said tri-captain Cara Madden ’11. “This year we have more depth in all the different events, which we are looking to translate into scoring more points in meets throughout the season.”
The women lost their first meet of the season against Bates by a score of 159-138.
“The Bates meet was somewhat disappointing for us,” said tri-captain Dede Horvath ’10. “Their team has some strong swimmers. Everyone on our team had great swims and the scores were closee throughout the whole meet, but in the end it just wasn’t enough.”
Cara Colker-Eybel ’13 had an impressive debut in the Bates meet. Colker-Eybel was named NESCAC Performer of the Week after winning two events against the Bobcats and taking the 100 fly and the 200 free in the Amherst meet.
“This season has started off really well,” Horvath said. “We have a great group of freshmen, each of whom are adding a lot to the team. In particular, Cara C-E, a freshman, has dominated all of her events and had excellent swims at our Bates meet.”
The women were handed their second loss of the season against Amherst with a score of 125-108, the closest match between the teams since 2001 (a 122-121 Amherst victory) but not enough to give the Cardinals their first win against the Lord Jeffs since 1994.
“The Amherst meet went well this year,” Horvath said. “We had some very close races that may have intimidated them a bit and shown to them and ourselves that we are a much stronger this team year and have a lot of potential for the rest of the season.”
Some impressive first-place swims from the meet against the Lord Jeffs include the 1000 free by Rachel Cohen ’13 (11:09.94), the 100 free by Janine Zaltsman ’11 (0:55.34), and the 100 back by Madden (1:00.93).
The men and women will be at home this weekend to host the annual Cardinal Invitational, with visiting teams including Clark, Hamilton, Trinity, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The action kicks off at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday.
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