Women divers & swimmers sink Colby and Bates

Author: Sarah Polling Luehrman

This weekend, the Middlebury College women swimmers and divers kicked off the New Year with two victories over NESCAC competitors Colby and Bates. The Panthers defeated Colby 155-115 on Saturday, and Bates 162-130 Sunday in the Middlebury Natatorium.

The Middlebury women boasted not only of these two NESCAC wins but also of multiple pool records that Marika Ross '08 achieved over the course of the weekend. Ross's time of 4:37.94 in the 400m individual medley and her time of 58.05 in the 100m fly broke two pool records, both set in 1997.

More astounding still was Ross's performance Sunday, wherein she broke a school record and a pool record set in 2001 and made the NCAA "A" cut with her time of 2:06.26 in the 200m fly event. Other notable individual accomplishments came from McKenna Moreau '06, who won the 100m back against both Colby and Bates and the 200m back against Bates; Barbara Van der Veer '07, topping both Colby and Bates in the 50m free and Bates in the 100m free; and Sara Cowie '08, who won the 500m free in both meets and improved upon her Saturday time by .58 seconds when she swam Sunday.

The team as a whole is "right where they need to be at the moment," said Head Coach Peter Solomon. They recently returned from a seven-day intensive training trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. over the Winter Break, and Coach Solomon expressed satisfaction with the performance this weekend in the Natatorium given the rough training from which the team has just emerged.

Many swimmers have been ill or injured recently, but the way in which they have pulled back together and responded to all their training "is a good token of things to come" later in the season, Solomon hopes.

As the second half of the season begins, the swimmers will begin to focus on their speed, to train for their specific events and to drop their times from the first half. As the MIT Invitational approaches and with it the NESCAC finals, the season will wind down and the team will begin to rest and taper to prepare themselves.

In the meantime, they have still to face Hamilton (January 15th) and Williams (January 29th), among other teams, in dual meets. Hamilton is a team that can certainly challenge Middlebury in a dual meet, and the Panthers can look forward to an exciting weekend coming up.