Both Bates swimming and diving teams swam well this past weekend, as the Bobcats hosted Bowdoin on Friday before traveling to Colby on Saturday.
The women’s team narrowly missed upsetting the Bowdoin Polar Bears, losing 149-139, as the fate of the entire meet came down to the last relay (the 400m freestyle).
Bates jumped out to an early lead in the meet, as junior Gabrielle Sergi won both the 50m and 100m with times of 24.69 and 54.19, respectively. The Bobcats also won the medley relay with strong performances from freshman Whitney Paine, senior captains Catherine Sparks and Katy Zingale, and Sergi. Additionally, Paine won the 50m and 100m backstrokes, while Sparks won the 50m breast stroke and Zingale won the 100m butterfly.
While the men’s team lost to Bowdoin 177-121, the Bobcats performed well in several events. In particular, Bates dominated the 500m freestyle, as sophomores Alex Smachlo, Mathew Hillsberg, and Peter Mihalcik placed first through third with times of 5:01.71, 5:06.03, and 5:09.03 respectively. Additionally, senior Nick Karlson won the 50m freestyle in 22.40 seconds, while senior Travis Jones won both the 1m and 3m diving competitions.
On Saturday, Bates men’s team dominated Colby, winning 196-103. Jones again had an impressive meet, winning the 1m and 3m dives with scores of 262.40 and 255.30 respectively. Freshman diver Porter Harrast also had a strong meet, finishing second in both events.
Additionally, Junior Venkatesh Duvvuri won the 200m butterfly, sophomore Andrew Briggs won the 100m breast stroke, and sophomore Matthew Gagne won the 100m butterfly. Sophomore Andrew Seaton won the 200 backstroke, while freshman Ben Sommer won the 100 backstroke.
The high point of the meet was Hillsberg’s win in the 500m freestyle in 5:05.82.
“We were happy with the way we swam this weekend. We wanted to be closer to Bowdoin, but crushing Colby was awesome,” noted Duvvuri.
The women’s team narrowly defeated Colby, winning by a margin of 146-142. Sergi again won the 100m freestyle, this time in 54.95.
Sophomore Nell Briggs won the 200m freestyle in 2:00.31, while freshman Caroline Depew took second. Additionally, sophomore Sarah Bouchard displayed an impressive performance in distance swimming, winning both the 1,000m freestyle and the 500m freestyle events in times of 11:01.72 and 5:23.19, respectively.
Both teams will have two weeks to train and prepare for their next meet, which is on February 2nd at Wellesley College.
