The NESCAC Championships at the Bowdoin pool saw the Cardinals finish sixth out of 11 teams. Strong, consistent performances led to a fine result as the men regularly broke the top 24, the group that scores points for the team in the three-day meet.
“The team did great. We moved up to sixth place this year. We all did really impressively, especially the relay teams,” said Ben Byers ’07.
Byers is ranked ninth in the 1650-yard freestyle event. He failed to disappoint, finishing second in the race in 16:00.95, breaking his old school record by 2.7 seconds. In fact, entering the weekend, Byers had not lost any race since Dec. 5, when he finished second in the 500-yard free against Williams. This weekend he finished third in the 500-yard, touching the rail at 4:40.96. One could make the case that the 1000-yard free was Byers’ best race even though he finished third. Byers time of 9:34.09 broke his old school record by 5.96 seconds.
“I had some really good swims. Zach Webster ’06 and Josh Tanz ’06 also did really well. In the 200 yard freestyle relay, we broke school record. I re-broke the school record in 1,000yard freestyle and 1650 yard freestyle. It was nice,” Byers said. “I lost some races I shouldn’t have lost– it was more because I wasn’t swimming as smart as I could. We did pretty well; everyone is real happy with how weekend went.”
Josh Tanz ’06 was also a standout swimmer this weekend. In his event, the 200-yard medley, his team featuring Webster, Dan Devine ’06, and co-captain Tom Cleveland ’05 finished seventh, reaching the wall in 1:37.41, about 1.3 seconds behind the school record. Tanz was also the top Cardinal in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing fifth in 52.12 seconds, 1.03 seconds behind the record set by Josh Walker ’01. Tanz was also a member of the sixth-place team in Friday’s 200-yard free relay with Devine, Cleveland, and John Haley ’07; their 1:25.38 broke the previous Wesleyan record. Cleveland and Tanz also finished .09 seconds apart (22.05 and 22.14) in the 50-yard free, good for 15th and 16th place, respectively.
Head Coach Mary Bolich was ecstatic about her team’s results.
“Everybody swam quite well individually, which allowed us to move up in the team rankings from last year. Most people swam lifetime best times, which is ultimately the goal we’re shooting for,” Bolich said.
The diving team brought only one member, Eric Altheu ’07, to Bowdoin this year. Though he failed to make the finals in either event, he still performed well, breaking 200 points in both the one and three-meter events. He fared better in the one-meter dives, scoring 272.60 points, which brought him 15th place in the preliminary levels. In the three-meter event, Altneu scored 214.80 and finished 16th in the preliminaries.
Byers will swim in the 1650-yard freestyle, the 400-yard Individual Medley, and the 500-yard freestyle in which he made the NCAA’s “B” cut. He will participate in the Division III Nationals March 18-20 in St. Peters, MO. Another Cardinal swimmer, Joanna Tice ’07, is the first alternate in the women’s nationals. She awaits a call from the NCAA for the word. The women’s nationals are March 11-13, also in St. Peters.
“We’re real excited with taking people out to NCAAs with the opportunity to represent Wesleyan nationally,” Bolich said. “Ben was somewhat tired and unshaved over the weekend. We were really focusing on nationals. We think that they’re going to be able to perform really well.”
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