Men
The men stood strong against Union to improve to 6-0 in dual meets on the season. However, next week is another challenge for the Jeffs as they face MIT, to whom they lost last year in a close 152-146 away meet.
The highlight of the Jeffs’ most recent meet came in the final event as they broke a 13-year-old pool record for the 800 freestyle relay. The relay team of tri-captain Christian Witzke ’09, Tad Homchick ’10, Alex Fraser ’11 and Ryan Lichtenfels ’12 set the new record of 7:01.53, besting the previous mark of 7:08.20 set by the 1996 Amherst team by nearly seven seconds.
Each member of the relay team had an individual win as well. Witzke took the 100 fly with a time of 53.07. Homchick dominated the sprint frees, winning the 50 (21.81) and the 100 (47.94), while Fraser took the 200 IM (2:00.46) and 500 free (4:49.93) wins. Lichtenfels swam the 1650 freestyle in 16:21.43, less than three-tenths of a second off of an NCAA “B” time; however, his swim was still good enough to finish more than 26 seconds ahead of the runner-up from Union.
Adding to the Amherst wins were sophomore Reid Fitzgerald, first-year Mike O’Connor and senior Kai Robinson. Fitzgerald took the 100 back with a time of 54.73 while O’Connor swam a 1:01.20 en route to a win in the 100 breast. Robinson handily won the diving events with scores of 314.85 and 288.90. Robinson recorded the top score on each board in every meet this season, showing exactly why he won the NCAA titles in both events last year.
While the men have had an impressive season thus far, picking up a seventh victory next week against MIT will not be easy.
“MIT is a fast team and matches up well against us in most events,” said Homchick. “It should be a close and exciting meet.”
Women
The three record-breaking swims were just part of a series of strong performances in Sunday’s meet. Sophomore Kendra Stern continued her strong season by taking a part in all three record swims. K. Stern first shattered the 200 free record of 1:54.05 set last year by Williams’ Ellen Ramsay with a time of 1:50.92. The time is the fastest performance in the 200 so far this year by any swimmer in Div. III. Showing her versatility, K. Stern then switched to win the 100 butterfly with a record-breaking 57.29. K. Stern capped off the meet by setting a new record, 7:49.35, in the 800 free relay with sister Meaghan Stern ’09, Becca Thompson ’12 and Alex Lee ’09.
“Kendra’s 200 free was definitely the swim of the meet,” commented M. Stern. “Such a dominating swim at this point in the season, after some difficult practices, bodes well for NESCACs and Nationals when we start to rest.”
Besides the 800 free relay M. Stern had two individual victories of her own in polar opposite freestyle events, the 100 and the 1000 freestyle. In the 1000, M. Stern finished with a time of 10:36.88, more than 24 seconds ahead of second place teammate Ellie Hewitt ’09. Her 100 race was much closer; M. Stern out-touched Union’s Priscilla Wright by three-tenths of a second with a 54.97.
Thompson and Lee had individual wins as well in the 100 backstroke (1:01.57) and 500 freestyle (5:11.98) respectively. Adding to the individual wins was sophomore Andrea Jenson, who took the 200 IM with a 2:15.07 just ahead of teammate tri-captain Kara MacLaverty ’09. Meanwhile, fellow tri-captain Sabrina Dorman ’09 dominated the diving boards.
Despite facing three Union divers as the sole diver for Amherst, Dorman won both the 1 and 3-meter events with 233.55 and 243.98 points, the lone competitor to score over 200 points on either board.