Swimmers Splash Back After Dartmouth Losses

Author: David Freedman

Over the past month, the Middlebury men's and women's swimming and diving teams have taken on four opponents, three in the first week of Winter Term. The men rebounded from two losses against perennially strong squads from Dartmouth College and Amherst College to earn two victories over Colby College and Bates College. The women's side earned three New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) wins over the past month. They started on this tear with their historic victory over Amherst, while losing for the first time this season to Dartmouth, a men and women's Division I team.
The women's win against Amherst marks the Panther's first defeat of any of their swimming and diving teams in Coach Peter Solomon's six years here. In a truly all-around team effort, Middlebury fought hard for a 129-114 victory marked with personal bests for most of the Panther swimmers and even a few pool records.
Lizzy Dewitt '04, McKenna Moreau '06 Electra Smith '06 broke personal records to earn pivotal points for Middlebury throughout the meet. Junior Sarah Groff's win in the 500-yard freestyle event was an amazing performance in which she edged out Amherst's All-American and National Champion swimmer by 0.17 seconds.
Despite the 177-118 loss to Dartmouth on Jan. 8, the women swam well against Colby and Bates on the Jan. 11 and 12 to push their record overall to 4-1. With various combinations of swimmers in the freestyle and medley relays, Middlebury won all four relays in the span of two days with Alyson Lipsky '03, Teague Douglas '06, Lily Knopman '06, Liza Reed '06 and Dewitt taking part in many of these races. Kate Miller '05, Lipsky and Moreau continued their strong performances in the backstroke, posting victories for Middlebury in each of these races. The women's team truly showed their depth this weekend by having either two swimmers or two relay teams finish in the top three places in 54 of the 58 events.
While the men lost 162-79 in their first NESCAC matchup against Amherst, they showed signs of improvement for a very young team in two big conference wins over Colby, 165-112, and Bates, 161-111. The meet against Dartmouth in between the NESCAC meets exposed the men's side, as the Big Green broke 14 pool records on the night to win 188-88. As Solomon points out, even through the losses, the men's sprinting events and all-around team depth showed they are fierce competitors.
Following the theme of the women's meet with Amherst, a host of Middlebury swimmers posted personal bests. The day began with Jason Korsmeyer '05, Stephen Kinney '03, Rob Norman '05 and Scott Atkinson '06 all besting personal records. Matt Clark '04 and David Hawkins '05 placed first and third in the 50-yard freestyle event, and later on Hawkins led the way as he and Clark finished first and second in the 100-yard freestyle event.
Putting the two losses aside and pushing forward, the men's team had two outstanding back-to-back performances to move to 3-2 on the year. Hawkins and Clark carried their success from the Amherst meet right into this past weekend. They both participated in the 200-meter medley relay against Bates, and together won the 50, 100 and 200-yard freestyle events. Hawkins also won the 50 freestyle and the 50 butterfly events against Colby the previous day. Adam Rahal '05, Ricky Barfus '03, Alex Demas '06 and Andrew Sterling '03 contributed consistently throughout the past month.
The men's and women's teams will travel to Hamilton on Jan. 18 for their fourth NESCAC meet of the year.