Perfectly matched, Amherst’s swimming and diving teams both possess an overall season record of 6-1. This past Sunday the women claimed victory over MIT 160-131, while the men suffered their first loss of the year 119-172. The meet was also a bittersweet moment for the 10 seniors, as they swam or dove for the last time at Pratt Pool in their final home competition.
Men
Although it was Senior Day, first-year Ryan Lichtenfels took center stage, setting two pool records in the loss. Though the meet started with a brief ceremony honoring seniors Josiah Bethards, Alec Goldfield, C.J. Holmes, Dan Peterson, Chris Resler, Kai Robinson, Joe Scala and Christian Witzke, Lichtenfels stole the show.
The first-year, who in recent weeks has been making an impressive showing, won the second event of the meet — the 1000 free — with a record mark of 9:34.60, over 14 seconds faster than second-place Tim White ’12. His 500 free was equally dominant, breaking a 20-year-old record with an NCAA “B” time of 4:37.58. Lichtenfels nearly had a third win but was out-touched in the 200 individual medley, losing by only one one-hundreth of a second.
White was the only other Amherst swimmer to win, taking the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:56.53. Robinson dominated the boards yet again in his 11th sweep of the diving events and going a perfect 7-for-7 this season with a 328.95 in the 3-meter event and a 310.43 on the 1-meter board.
MIT set two pool records Sunday afternoon as well, picking up the top 100 butterfly and the 400 free relay times. MIT junior Jeff Zhou won the 100 butterfly in 51.20 to break a four-year-old record before he joined teammates Luke Cummings, Peter Wellings and Laurent Charpentier to break the 400 free relay record set last year by the Jeffs with a time of 3:09.43. The men will look to bounce back from Sunday’s loss next Saturday against Springfield College in the final dual meet of the year before heading to the NESCAC Championships.
Women
The seniors made the most of their last home meet, as several earned wins in the victory. Senior tri-captain Sabrina Dorman continued her strong performance on the diving boards, earning a score of 262.80 on the 1-meter board and a 271.80 on the 3-meter board, both NCAA “B” qualifications.
Meaghan Stern ’09 continued to have a strong season with a win in the 200 free (1:55.40) and a 400 free relay win in an all-senior team with Mary Marvel, tri-captain Erin Morrison, and Alex Lee. Lee had an individual win in the 100 back with a time of 1:01.92, while Morrison was the anchor of the winning 200 medley relay team (1:54.04). Rounding out the senior victories was tri-captain Kara MacLaverty, who took the 200 back in 2:10.35.
In addition to Dorman, M. Stern, Marvel, Morrison, Lee, and MacLaverty, seniors Jackie De La Fuente, Ellie Hewitt, Margaret Tato and Kiley Wong were also honored on senior day at Pratt Pool.
Not letting the seniors have all the glory, junior Kendall Dacey, sophomores Andrea Jensen and Kendra Stern, and first-year Becca Kelley took home individual wins of their own. Dacey won the 200 fly with a time of 2:13.00, while Jensen took the 200 breast (2:32.47) in an impressive one-two-three finish by the Jeffs. Kelley took the other breaststroke event by winning the 100 with a 1:10.66. K. Stern dominated yet again, winning the 50 freestyle (23.78), 500 freestyle (5:01.02) and 200 individual medley (2:09.14), all NCAA “B” qualifying times. The women return to action February 7 in a final dual meet against Springfield.