The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are off to great starts for the 2017-18 season. With three meets down, they have not lost and have high expectations for what is to come. Chris Lee ’18 says, “We have Midd, Colby and Bowdoin coming up in the next two weeks, and I think they present us with great opportunities to race our best events and get back into that racing mentality.” This quote was taken prior to the meet against Middlebury on Sunday, January 14, which both the men’s and women’s teams won to continue the winning streak.
In the matchup with Middlebury, the men won by a score of 170-118, and the women won 152.5-141.5. In the men’s meet, Riley Ewing ’18 broke a Tarbell Pool record in the 200 backstroke. Alex Bedard ’19 also broke a pool record in the 100 breaststroke. The women’s team was in a tough spot towards the end of the race, as they needed to win the last two events in order to pull out the win. After Hope Logan ’18 won the 400-yard individual medley, it came down to the 200-yard freestyle relay team. This group was able to win as well, to give the team the scoring push it needed to finish on top.
Prior to this race against Middlebury, the team had their annual training trip to Florida over winter break. Although this may sound like a nice vacation, it is a lot of hard work. Lee ’18 says, “Florida marks a shift from massive yardage sets to more technical, mentally engaged sets… We swam twice a day, clocking about seven to ten thousand meters a day.” He also mentioned how much the trip does to build morale for the team. Clearly, this is paying off, based on their first meet back.
In the first part of the season prior to winter break, the teams had meets against Trinity and Wesleyan, and the Maine State Meet. In the matchup with Trinity and Wesleyan, the women’s team beat Wesleyan 171-119 and beat Trinity 208.5-84.5. In the Maine State Meet, the men’s team came in first place with 1,096 points. Bowdoin took second with 869, Colby came in third with 648, and the University of Maine finished last with 521. For the women, they scored 1,039.5 points, which was enough to beat Bowdoin’s 938, Maine’s 795, and Colby’s 388.5. Clearly, these were dominant wins for both the men’s and women’s teams.
With such a great start to the season underway, the team knows that they have the ability and the training to push their success even further. Lee ’18 says, “I think this season, the senior class has been focused on the team morale and camaraderie. A happy team is a successful team, and we have tried to entertain, understand, and lead our underclassmen as best we can. Training-wise, the team has put in immense effort in these last three months, and we are about to reap the benefits in February. I think as long as we stay on our current trajectory, everyone will be very pleased once NESCAC season arrives.” The ceiling has not been reached yet, and it seems that there is a lot of confidence among the team members. This is rightly earned based on early success, and with the hard work being put in day in and day out, the rest of the season should continue to be bright.
