The women's team has had a consistent rivalry for several years with the Middlebury women, who call themselves the Pink Panthers and dress in pink. One year, they even "beat up" Amherst divers to steal their Amherst banner and dye it pink. Always competitive with Amherst, the Middlebury coach Peter Solomon, unpopular from his days as coach at the Fairest College, now employs what Amherst team members call "sketchy" practices, often using fast swimmers who are back from abroad early in meets or not publishing names of swimmers along with results from earlier meets.
The men's team came off of a loss to the Panthers two years ago looking for sweet revenge last year. They ate cat meat early last season when they won every event at Pratt Pool before the Middlebury team was suspended for the rest of the season as punishment for a hazing incident. There is no question that tensions were running high as the ethical Jeffs traveled to Middlebury, Vt.
Women
Co-captain Margaret Ramsey '07 exuded her excitement about this past weekend's meet, which saw the Pink Panthers flounder in the wake of the Jeffs. "This weekend was amazing for the women," Ramsey said of the 162-136 win. "Midd. is one of the toughest teams we swim against in the NESCAC because they're a bigger team, they have a great facility and train hard and they also have a lot of enthusiasm. We have a great attitude of 'whatever it takes to get it done.'" And get it done the Jeffs did, as they left Vermont with another victory in the books.
The women tore through the Middlebury natatorium like it was their home water. The powerhouse 400-yard medley relay squad of Brittany Sasser '08, senior co-captain Piper Petterson, Ramsey and Meaghan Stern '09 burst off the blocks and claimed the first event of the meet to set the tempo for the rest of the afternoon. In a very close 1,000-yard freestyle race Julie Kim '08 took first, followed by two strong Middlebury swimmers and first-year sensation Anna Haring. Stern carried on the momentum to the 200-yard freestyle, where she touched out Yu Wang of Middlebury by 0.20 second for the win. Amherst then swept the top three spots in the 100-yard backstroke, as the Div. III National Champion Sasser took first by over three seconds, followed by teammates Lisa Pritchard '08 and Kara MacLaverty '09. Petterson put up a stellar time of 1:08.96, her best of the season, to secure the 100-yard breastroke win, way ahead of a pack of strong Middlebury breastrokers. Five events into the meet, the Amherst women had yet to concede a single event. Panther phenom Marika Ross finally broke the streak in the 200-yard butterfly.
Other notable Amherst performances included sophomore Alex Lee's 200-yard backstroke win, Kim's 500-yard freestyle dominance and Sasser's convincing first-place finishes in the 200-yard breastroke and 200-yard individual medley, an event she was told she would swim right before the official fired the starting gun. Ross was the only Panther swimmer to claim first in any event. Amherst's strong 400-yard freestyle relay team of Kim, Pritchard, Erin Morrison '09 and Stern put the final exclamation point on the meet with their victory.
"I know Piper and I were incredibly proud of the effort everyone put into the meet as a whole," said Ramsey. "Some people were disappointed in their times, but I think the team did a good job of putting individual swims behind them and getting back up for their later events." The women are determined not to let their successes go to their heads and will keep training hard for the rest of what should be a rewarding season. "It's really good to have had this meet now because this is our meet right before [our meet against Williams College] and it's important to have a gauge of how our training is going. And I think right now we are where we want to be," said Kim. "But we still have a lot of work to do for the rest of the season," she added, "like turns, finishing relay transitions and all that mechanical stuff." But, instilling a strong "competitive edge" is equally important, she said.
The team refuses to take their success for granted. "After the meet [Head Coach Nick Nichols] told us we've still got a lot of work to do, and I agree," said Ramsey. "But I also think that there's been a lot of really great training this year and the women are fired up by this close meet to really dig in."
Men
"It's always disappointing when you don't win, but people really swam their hearts out at the meet," explained senior tri-captain John Ancona, looking back on last Saturday's Middlebury meet that ended 163-135 in favor of the Panthers. The tough meet dropped the men's season record to 2-1. Senior tri-captain Adam Kaplan spoke frankly: "We needed to really step it up big against Middlebury. Some of us did and some of us didn't. And Middlebury had great swims across the board. We needed to match them and we didn't." While the meet did not end the way the team would have liked, the Jeffs left Vermont with a laundry list of personal and seasonal best times and a positive outlook for the rest of the season. "Where we are in the season, it is amazing that we are all posting seasonal bests," posited Andrew Maslan '08.
Middlebury jumped out to a quick 15-2 lead, after the Panthers went one-two in the opening 200-yard medley relay. Nevertheless, sophomore Christian Witzke's impressive win in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:16.00, 19 seconds faster than the next best swimmer, put the Jeffs back in contention heading into the 200-yard freestyle. Maslan took first and Witzke took third, followed by Joe Scala '09 in fourth. However, Middlebury's strong stroke specialists widened their margin of victory over the Jeffs.
Nonetheless, Amherst's celebrated sprint freestylers did not let the point deficit dampen their energy. They burst off the blocks mid-meet, taking one-two-four in the 50-yard freestyle, with first-year phenom Tad Homchick coming away with an impressive win, followed closely by Kaplan. If the thrilling win wasn't enough, the sprinters came back after the diving and improved upon their earlier performance, with Homchick, Maslan and Scala grabbing the top three spots. However, the Middlebury stroke specialists worked their magic again in the latter half of the meet, effectively eliminating Amherst's chance of victory by the time of the 400-yard relay. Despite this, the foursome of Homchick, Maslan, Witzke and Chris Resler '09 posted its best time of the season, taking first in the final event of the afternoon.
"The meet was very close until the end. The loss was just a product of people getting touched out in really close races," explained James Stanton '08.
Only two first-years competed for the Jeffs, representing an uncharacteristically small recruiting class. Ancona said he is very proud of impact freshmen Homchick and Hunter Mims have had. "They've really more than held up their end of the bargain and they've been great. They're two of the people of whom I'm most proud." In contrast, Middlebury entered the meet with a very strong group of underclassmen. Described Kaplan, "Middlebury had some really good [first-years] who came up big for them. There were definitely some people who came out through the woodworks for Middlebury."
Despite the frustrating loss, spirits remain high for the rest of the men's season. The team still carries what Stanton calls a "positive outlook." He said the team will "draw on the adversity to work hard for the rest of the season." Ancona said that the team will "use Midd. to get excited for the next meet, as something you can channel so you can succeed. People are very optimistic about our general chances this season. People are going to try, and if they try hard they'll do well."
The Jeffs return to action after New Year's, as they take on perennial rival and NESCAC powerhouse Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. "It's just hardcore training for the next month," said Ancona.
NESCAC Notes
Williams lists six more first-years than Amherst on its men's roster and boasts a strong transfer student as well.