The Lord Jeffs swam against the Middlebury Panthers on Dec. 7 in one of their toughest meets of the season. Amherst lost a close contest 129-114 despite many good swims. Rebecca Stein '05 placed second in 53:78, her best 100-yard freestyle time of the season, to qualify for the B cut for Nationals. She may be invited to compete in the NCAA National Championships.
Kate Shaw '05 also contributed her best scores of the season, winning both the 1 and 3-meter diving events with scores of 241.05 and 241.73 respectively.
The other individual first places came from Jill Wyrick '05 in the 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard breaststroke and co-captain Morgan Bayer '03 in the 1000-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly.
The first semester wrapped up successfully with a 133-103 victory at Springfield College on Dec. 10. Michelle McCreary '05, Katie Massopust '05 and Sarah Dobbs '04 started the meet off with a sweep of the 1000-yard freestyle.
This winning trend continued with Bayer, Courtney Davies '05 and Hilary Stockbridge '05 taking the top spots of the 100-yard butterfly. The distance swimmers again demonstrated their depth when McCreary, Alexis Johnston '05 and co-captain Rory Miller '03 swept the 500-yard freestyle.
The swimmers returned to campus early from winter break to prepare for Colby College on Jan. 5. The Jeffs solidly defeated the White Mules 111-89. Wyrick took the 100-yard individual medley with her best time of the season, 1:02.18. In the 100-yard butterfly, Bayer came from behind to win by only half a second. The free relay team of McCreary, Gretchen Sisson '06, Bayer and Stein completed the meet by pulling ahead to win a very close race.
On Jan. 11 the women swam at Williams College where they were defeated 84-216. "We do some tapering for Williams and get excited for it," said Miller. "We had a bunch of good swims but overall were kind of struggling."
Wyrick placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley, swimming her best of the season. In both events, as well as the 200-yard breaststroke, she has achieved the B time for Nationals.
Bayer's victories were the team's only first place finishes. She improved her time in the 500-yard freestyle by three seconds and won a very close 200-yard butterfly. "It's always rare to see someone give her some good competition," commented Miller. "But she pulled off the win as she usually does." Bayer made the A qualifying time for the 200-yard, which means that she will definitely be invited to Nationals in the event in which she was the two-time national champion.
Kristen Boyd '05 dove her best 3-meter score of 200.10. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Liz Chiang '05, Bayer, Sisson and Stein closed the meet with a strong second place finish and their best time of the season, 3:41.74.
Just hours after the meet, the team flew to Puerto Rico where they enjoyed warm weather, intense training and team bonding. "It's good to spend quality time with the people on the team," said Massopust. This time together included double practices almost every day.
"We had a lot of fun and we got a lot done in the pool," added Dobbs.
The Jeffs returned grudgingly to New England's snow for a competitive meet Jan. 25 against NESCAC rival Hamilton College. "They're always relatively rested for [the meet] so they tend to swim pretty fast," said Miller. The Jeffs were ready, however, and defeated the Continentals 158-135.
Their auspicious first race, the 200-yard medley relay, set the tone for the meet. Chiang, Wyrick, Bayer, and Stein swam their best of the season again with a time of 1:51.18. Bayer swam a personal best 1:58.65 and a season best 59.19 in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly, respectively, capturing first in both. With her time in the 100-yard butterfly, she has made the B time for Nationals in yet another event. Boyd bettered her personal best score in the 1-meter dive with 214.2 points. Massopust led the 500-yard freestyle with a season-best 5:23.30. Miller and Dobbs followed close behind to let the Jeffs sweep the event.
The 50-yard butterfly presented Davies with an opportunity she seized, slicing a tenth of second from last year's personal best to place first with a time of 27.66.
Hamilton was Dobbs' final meet of the season, as she will spend next semester abroad in Germany. She is pleased with her performances, however. "I swam faster during this season than I did last season, and I imagine that if I were to swim championships, I would probably see some good times."
Mia Anderson and Sisson compose the Jeffs' entire freshman swimming squad, which Anderson admitted was intimidating at first. Middlebury, in contrast, has 16 freshmen, almost as many as the Amherst women have in total. This puts extra pressure on the freshmen who are on the team.
"But ever since the first day of practice, the Amherst swimmers have provided me with a community where it is hard to feel singled out or secluded," said Anderson. Without her teammates she doubts that she would compete in interscholastic athletics.
The ladies will travel to M.I.T. and Hartwick College next weekend and have their final home meet Feb. 8 against Union College. After the regular season ends, the Jeffs will begin their taper into NESCACs as they take a few weeks off to get in prime racing condition. Miller sees strong potential for the championships and is excited for the last part of the season. "We're great for where we are right now."