Women
The women’s team saw some impressive performances in a number of different events. Kendra Stern ’11 won three individual races and earned an NCAA ‘A’ for her swimming in the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:52.15, qualifying for the national competitions. Among her other wins were the 500 free, 200 IM (earning NCAA ‘B’ in both of these) and the 200-yard medley relay (freestyle leg) with senior co-captain Kendall Dacey, sophomore Rebecca Kelley, and first-year Maddy Sprung-Keyser.
Stern was far from alone as a winner, as many others also swam well. First-year Katie Vincett won the 50-yard freestyle, Nicole Heise ’13 nabbed the 100-yard and senior Anna Haring secured the 1000, sweeping all the freestyle events for the team. Both diving events went to Amherst as the result of superb performances in the 1- and 3-meter dives by junior Meggie Meisinger. Additionally, Kelley won both breaststroke competitions in the 100 and 200. The remaining wins were earned by Sprung-Keyser (100-yard backstroke) and first-year Emily Swett (200-yard backstroke) leaving only the 400 freestyle relay, 100 fly and 200 fly for the Middlebury competitors.
Men
On the men’s side, the domination was just as impressive. The top three places of the 200-yard breaststroke all went to Amherst swimmers, first-year Daniel Schwab, Tim White and Reid Fitzgerald, in order. Schwab also won the 100-yard backstroke, coming in only 0.34 seconds ahead of Fitzgerald. The freestyle events all went to the Jeffs, with senior co-captain Tad Homchick taking the 50 and 100 at times of 21.79 and 48.35, respectively. Sheng Hu ’13 placed right behind him in both events. In the longer races, junior Alex Fraser won the 200 and 500 free, with Ryan Lichtenfels, ’12, drubbing the competition by finishing at 10:03.28, 18 seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer. And in similarly spectacular style, the men’s team swept all the butterfly events.
Later, Homchick and Fraser teamed up twice to win the 400-yard freestyle relay with Hu and White, as well as the 200 medley relay with Fitzgerald and sophomore Mike O’Conner. On the diving side, in the 1-meter, Middlebury’s Omar Carmical lost out to sophomore Gavin Front (who also won the 3-meter handily) by a mere half point.
For sophomore Bart Federak, the day was particularly good, as he swept the breaststroke events and won the 200 IM with classmates Lichtenfels and Ben McBratney filling out the next two spots. On the whole, it seems the team did indeed “step up,” as Homchick believed they would for the meet on Saturday by making such a strong show. The team will travel to New York for a meet at 1 p.m on Sunday, Jan. 3 in a double-header at Union College.