Women
The new members of the women’s team made a very strong showing in their first meet at Colby. Emily Swett ’13 won the 100-yard backstroke and the 200 a whole three seconds ahead of the next finisher at 2:14:50. Additionally, First-year Katie Vincett won the freestyle 50-yard race at 25.46 and the 100-yard race, securing her first two collegiate victories. Following Vincett was another first-year, Bobbi Mason, finishing within a second of her fellow classmate. The first-years also demonstrated strong teamwork, winning the 200-yard freestyle relay with a team consisting of three swimmers new to the team.
Sophomore Rebecca Kelley performed outstandingly, easily winning the 100 by a three-second gap and just besting teammate Andrea Jensen ’11 by 0.14 seconds, who later won the 200-yard individual medley just a hair (0.26 seconds) ahead Danielle Carlson of Colby. Senior co-captain Kendall Dacey said that Kelley, “stepped out of her comfort zone and swam really well in off-events.”
The upperclassmen too pulled their weight in the competition, with junior Kendra Stern and senior Anna Haring, who prevailed with more than four seconds to spare in the 200-butterfly and also won the 500 freestyle. Stern won the 200 freestyle in addition to the 100-yard butterfly. As for the diving, Amherst’s Meggie Meisinger beat Colby’s Allison Mond in the one-meter dive and won unchallenged on the three-meter.
The Jeffs were forced to give it their all against Wesleyan with splendid performances from Kelley and Stern who both secured multiple wins. Kelley had a particularly impressive day, placing first in the independent medley (followed by first-year Nicole Heise and Haring)
The Cardinals made a very strong showing against the Jeffs, but in the end, Amherst’s aquatic prowess proved superior despite a number of key losses in the 100- , 200- and 1,000-yard freestyle races, along with the a one-two finish in the 100 backstroke and a victory in the 100 fly. The diving events were evenly divided, however, with Meisinger pulling off another win in the one-meter dive and Wesleyan winning the three-meter board. Dacey said Meisinger’s scores were notable, as they met National Consideration scores, a feat she deemed “impressive since we are only a month into the season.”
Men
Coming off the best season in program history, the men’s team dominated at Colby with a number of evenly distributed wins. First-year Daniel Schwab led the new team members with wins in the 100, in which he finished less than a 10th of a second before junior Reid Fitzgerald, and 200 backstroke. Mike O’Connor ’13 narrowly won the 100 breaststroke but succeeded in the 200 with ease.
Amherst took both butterfly competitions thanks to the speedy performances of senior co-captain Hunter Mims in the 200 and Ben McBratney in the 100. But the crushing victory did not stop there. The Jeffs won literally everything in the way of freestyle, distributing the glory to four separate racers: senior Tad Homchick, first-year Sheng Hu and sophomore Ryan Lichtenfels, with junior Alex Fraser as the only repetitive winner. Finally, both the 200 free and medley relays went to the Jeffs. Diver Gavin Front went unopposed in both the one-meter and three-meter dives.
The competition was much stiffer against Little Three rival Wesleyan over Thanksgiving break, but the Cardinals proved ultimately surmountable. The men won eight of 13 events, six of which were individual races and with no racers going home with more than one victory. Among the winners were McBratney (butterfly 100), Schwab (backstroke 100). The freestyle competition was all but swept by Amherst’s racers with Fraser besting Homchick by a hair in the 50 only for Homchick to do the same in the 100. Lichtenfels came in first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:51:08, more than two seconds ahead of the second place finisher. Rounding out the freestyle victories was Tim White in the 1000, a whopping 18 seconds ahead of Williams’ runner-up.
Wesleyan found victories in the 400 IM, the 100 breaststroke and their only win in the freestyle competition in the 200 thanks to some impressive swimming from Cardinal Dan Storms, who narrowly pushed past Hu with a 1:45:45. Speaking of the two meets, co-captain Homchick said, “the meets against Colby and Wesleyan gave us a good starting point for the season,” and that the team looks forward to the coming meet against Middlebury this Saturday.