Friday began with the 200-yard freestyle relay, in which the team of Liz Chiang '05, Katie Massopust '05, Ashley Simonsen '04 and Gretchen Sisson '06 took third behind Williams and Colby Colleges. The 50-yard butterfly followed, in which Sisson took seventh and Jaime Fisher '04 took 17th. In the 500-yard freestyle, co-captain Morgan Bayer '03 demonstrated her distance prowess by snatching second and making the national B-level time. Teammates Massopust, Alexis Johnston '05 and co-captain Rory Miller '03 rounded out the Amherst distance squad and placed ninth, 14th and 15th, respectively. "I'm very happy," said Miller, who was pleased with the "incredible swims" her team had throughout the weekend.
The 50-yard backstroke brought the excitement of Chiang winning and breaking the pool record. The previous record, 27.92, had been set in 1992 by a swimmer from Williams. Chiang coolly slid past it with a 27.90. "Personally, I'm really happy," she said, "and as a team we're having fun." Amy Adams '03 followed Chiang, placing 16th.
Jill Wyrick '05 continued the high level of competition in the next event, taking second in the 200-yard individual medley and making the A-level cut for nationals, ensuring her a spot. Hilary Stockbridge '05 was not far behind Wyrick, placing ninth in a race which Chiang dubbed "the most inspirational swim of the day."
Rebecca Stein '05 and Chiang excelled in the 50-yard freestyle; Stein tied for third with a B nationals time and Chiang sprinted to sixth, making the B cut in the morning preliminaries. Kate Shaw '05 dove to a strong fourth place in the 1-meter event.
The day closed with the 400-yard medley relay, where Michelle McCreary '05, Wyrick, Bayer and Stein took second to Williams and made the B cut for nationals.
As Friday closed, Amherst was just 30 points behind second-place Middlebury. "The day was incredible," said Miller. She added that, "We were much closer to Middlebury than any of us had expected." Chiang agreed. "We're having a lot of fun as a team, and everyone's doing well," she said.
Saturday dawned with the 200- yard medley relay. Chiang, Wyrick, Simonsen and Stein placed third, making the cut for nationals. To continue the Jeffs' tradition of excellence, Bayer won the 1000-yard freestyle, smashing both the pool and meet records. Even more impressively, she swam outstandingly without having tapered for the meet, continuing to swim full practices while most of her competitors rested in preparation. "I am extremely happy," said Bayer. "This is possibly one of the best meets I've been in." Her younger sister Leigh Bayer placed third for Middlebury in the same event.
To demonstrate the Jeffs' depth in distance events, McCreary, Johnston and Miller also placed in the top nine in the 1000-yard event. McCreary and Johnston swam in adjoining lanes and finished within .05 seconds of each other, taking sixth and seventh respectively. Miller raced to ninth with an excellent personal time of 11:01.16. "Rory had an awesome swim in the 1000," said Wyrick, adding that it was a great way for the senior co-captain to end her season.
In the 100-yard butterfly Simonsen and Mia Anderson '06 placed ninth and 14th. Stein and Massopust took seventh and tenth, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle.
In the 100-yard breaststroke, Wyrick placed third and Stockbridge sixth. McCreary took fifth in the 100- yard backstroke while Adams took 16th place. The second day concluded with the 800-yard freestyle relay team of Bayer, Stein, Wyrick and Massopust beating out Middlebury to take second in 7:49.98, a national B-cut time.
The last distance event opened the final day of the meet. Johnston, Massopust and Miller composed Amherst's 1650-yard group, placing fifth, sixth and 12th. This performance was followed by the 200-yard backstroke in which McCreary made the B cut and took fifth place with a time of 2:09.76. The 100-yard freestyle followed, in which Stein took fourth in a B-cut time and Simonsen placed 12th. Stockbridge finished her excellent weekend in the 200-yard breaststroke, placing third and nearly making the "A" cut in the morning preliminaries.
Bayer came in second in the 200- yard butterfly, breaking her own former meet record of 2:06.40 by swimming 2:05.45. However, Vanessa Williamson from Bates swam a 2:04.54 and broke both Bayer's meet and NESCAC records. This rematch at Nationals will likely be exciting.
The next event, the 100-yard individual medley, ended similarly, but with Amherst on top. In the preliminaries, top-seeded Wyrick swam a 1:00.39 and when she returned to the pool in the evening, she improved her time further to 59.57, breaking a long-standing NESCAC record. Teammate Chiang placed sixth.
Shaw took eighth place in the 3-meter diving event. The final day culminated with the 400-yard freestyle relay in which the team of Chiang, Wyrick, Simonsen and Stein swam a national B time of 3:36.49, and took third place.
The Amherst women had a superb meet with Jeffs qualifying for nationals and breaking records. "I'm so proud of our team," Massopust said.
Women's nationals are March 13-15, and as many as six individuals plus four relays will compete in Atlanta during what should be an exciting weekend.
The NESCAC championship meet was successful and enjoyable, as the "small but mighty" squad once again showed that "size doesn't matter" when you have athletes as talented as this bunch.