Over the break the Cardinal swimming and diving teams headed west for a weeklong training session in an unusually rainy San Diego.
“I think that the team as a whole did a great job of making the best out of the trip,” said butterfly swimmer Kate Krems ’08. “By the end of the second day everyone was in so much pain that we could barely move, but we continued to work our hardest through the week.”
The women’s and men’s teams swam three meets each since the close of last semester, facing off against Trinity and Tufts at home over the winter break, and then competing in a tri-meet at Connecticut College against the host Camels and Clark on January 22. Each team posted wins over three of four opponents.
The training-wearied Cards met the Trinity squad in the Freeman pool January 12, with both Card teams securing the anticipated victory by solid margins, as the men defeated the Bantams 165-106 and the women triumphed 163-135.
The men jumped out to an early lead in the meet’s opening race with a 1-2 finish in the 400-medley relay as the teams of Will Hasty ’08, Dan Devine ’06, Josh Tanz ’06 and Adam Chamberlain ’07 came in ahead of Zach Webster ’06, Jeff Stein ’08, Matt Donne ’07 and Dominik Heynen ’05 by a narrow margin. The strong performances continued throughout the day. Highlights included All-American Ben Byers ’07 extending his undefeated streak in the 500 and 1000 freestyle races. The freestyle events were Wesleyan’s best all day, as a Cardinal individual or team took first in each one of the five events. The 1-2-3 finish of Cardinals Tom Cleveland ’06, Tanz and Mike Pepi ’08 in the 50 free highlighted their strength in the stroke. Devine, Hasty and Chamberlain also had strong meets, and Eric Altneu ’07 finished second in both diving events.
The women came out strong against the Bantams as well, winning the first three stroke events. Krems continued her strong swimming by taking the win in the 100 fly, 200 free and the 400 individual medley. Amanda Shapiro ’08, already holding four school records, continued to shine with wins in both breaststroke events and the 200 individual medley. Meanwhile, Joanna Tice ’07, holder of two school records of her own, took the 50 free in 25.42, with Lauren Goldman ’08 close behind.
The Tufts Jumbos arrived at Freeman four days later and the Cardinal men and women were prepared for a greater challenge. The women delivered a second straight win with a 178.5-117.5 while the men struggled to stay consistent and fell 164-124.
There were bright spots among the men, however. Hasty set a new pool record with a 53.74 in winning the 100 backstroke while posting another win in the 200 back and swimming a strong leg of the 200-medley relay to help secure a victory. Once again, Byers defeated all comers in the distance races, with Rob Mitchell ’06 just behind him.
“We fell short in a couple of key areas, though not for lack of trying,” Byers said. “A couple of our kids, myself included, could have stepped in up a little more. Our backstrokers did very well and our filler guys did a tremendous job picking up much needed 3rd, 4th, and 5th place points for the team. In this meet it was our top guys who really didn’t get the job done.”
On the other hand, the women won their first ten stroke events, with Mikki Columbus ’05, Stephanie Lasby ’06 and Shapiro each winning a pair of individual events. Furthermore, Shapiro’s time of 2:28.54 in the 200 breaststroke set a new record for the Wesleyan pool. Suzy Morrison ’07 and Jessica Houghton ’08 finished 2-3 in both diving events.
Saturday the Cards headed to neighboring New London for a tri-meet with the Camels and the Clark University team. Galvanized by the disappointing results against Tufts, the men dominated Connecticut College in a 170-104 victory and routed Clark 227-39. Meanwhile, the women stumbled against Conn in a 189-121 loss, but easily handled Clark 235-59.
Byers continued to dominate the distance races, running his winning streak to 12 by prevailing in both the 500 and 1000. Hasty and Webster took 1-2 in both backstroke races as clean sweeps became common. Cleveland, Heynen and Pepi finished 1-2-3 in the 50 free, less than a second apart and the 100 free featured a 1-2-3 finish of Devine, Cleveland and Chamberlain. Tanz had a great meet, winning the 200 fly in 1:59.36 and performing well in several other events, while surprise performer Altneu, departed from his normal role as a diver to compete in the 100 yard breaststroke, finishing in 1:11.59, good enough for third place against Clark.
Shapiro and Krems emerged as the virtual stars of the meet for the women’s side, with Krems swimming season bests in both the 100 and the 200 fly, and Shapiro triumphing in all her individual events.
With both teams at 4-3, they stand in excellent shape for the NESCAC Championships. The women will swim for the league title February 18, while the men will host this year’s finals over the weekend of February 25. Before they can compete for top honors, they head up to the frozen tundra of Brunswick, Maine Saturday for a tri-meet competition against the Bowdoin Polar Bears and the Mules from Colby.
“I am sure that NESCACs will be a great meet for us, and we are all hoping to move up considerably in the standings from where we were last year,” Krems said. “We have all been working very hard and we’re looking forward to tapering and resting and seeing all of our work pay off in the end of the season.”
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