The championships held at the State University of New York at Buffalo saw the best teams in the nation compete tooth and nail with Amherst swimmers.
The first day of the competition saw the Jeffs finish solidly in a number of events. Morgan Bayer '03, coming off a great NESCAC meet, sustained her momentum the first day, finishing 15th in the 500y freestyle.
One of the best performances of the day was by Co-captain Hillary Jones '01 who finished eighth in the 50y freestyle. Jones followed her great swim in the 50y with a good performance in the 100y freestyle, finishing 16th.
The only diving event of the day, the 1m springboard, saw the Jeffs finish back-to-back. Co-captain Amanda Muir '01 finished 16th, one spot ahead of Cathy Poor '02.
In the final event of the day, the 400y medley relay, the Amherst team of Ali Abate '04, Bayer, Allison Martin '02, and Jones finished in ninth place.
The second day began with the 200y medley relay, where the Amherst team of Abate, Tiffany Johnston '01, Martin, and Jones finished twelfth.
In the 400y IM, Bayer was once again the story on the Jeffs side finishing eleventh.
The day concluded with the 800y freestyle relay, where the Jeff team of Bayer, Abate, Johnston, and Martin, finished eleventh.
The most dominant single swimmer for the Jeffs was unquestionably Bayer who took home the only win at NCAAs. She handily won the women's 200y butterfly for the second straight year.
Jones reflected on Bayer's win, "It was cool because all the New England teams got behind her. It was pretty loud and fun. We were pretty confident she would win during the race. It was close until the 125, but then she pulled away."
The final Amherst swimming and diving event of the season was the 3m springboard. In this event Poor turned the tables on Muir, finishing thirteenth while Muir finished 15th.
The championships were won by Denison College. In the end, the Jeffs finished 11th out of the 50 teams present. Perhaps more importantly, the squad edged out its conference rivals Middlebury College. The Panthers finished right behind the Jeffs in 12th place.
"I think we thought we would do better than we ended up doing; I thought we would have better times, but I think we did really well," said Jones.
The NCAAs were the final hurrah for several Amherst swimmers and divers who are now graduating. Among those who should be recognized are Johnston, Stacie Botsford '01, Jones and Muir.
Jones reflected on her career, "It's been good; it's been a lot of fun. I think Amanda and Tiffany handled it better than I did. I think we were relatively emotional. It's not hard to be sad, but on the other hand it's an exciting time."