Panthers roll to an impressive 5-1 season mark

Author: Zamir Ahmed

While most Middlebury students were enjoying a relaxing Winter Break at home, the women's swimming and diving team was training hard in Florida to stay in shape for the season. After returning to campus, the Panthers showed how much their hard work paid off, continuing their strong start to the season with a pair of wins over NESCAC rivals Colby and Bates last weekend. The victories pushed the Panthers to 5-1 on the year with four more meets before the NESCAC Championships.

On Jan. 7 the Panthers traveled up to Maine to take on the White Mules of Colby. Sparked by the return of a number of swimmers from abroad and illness, the team ran away with a convincing 194-87 victory. Leading the women with wins in multiple events were Sara Cowie '08, last year's All-American Marika Ross '08, first-year Catherine Suppan and diver Alanna Hanson '08.

Cowie won three events on the day, taking home the gold in the 200y with a time of 1:59.02, winning the 500y freestyle in a pool-record time of 5:09.92 and besting the previous pool-record in the 1000y freestyle by 15 seconds. In her first race back after illness, Ross won the 100y butterfly with a NCAA "B" qualifying time of 58.38 and added a victory in the 50y butterfly. Suppan had an impressive performance at the meet as well, prevailing in both the 500y IM and the 50y backstroke, winning that race in a school-record time of 27.90 seconds. The Panthers displayed their greatest strength as a team at the meet, their depth, as a number of other swimmers posted personal- and season-best times to dominate the competition.

"This is one of the best teams I've ever had at Middlebury," said Head Coach Peter Solomon. "We only get better each meet. We're gearing up for NESCACs which will be in a month. We're shooting for a second-place finish, going against Amherst for that spot, but we also want to make a run at Williams."

On Jan. 8, the team finished up its weekend road trip at Bates in a meet with very little drama. The Panthers got off to a hot start and never looked back to win by a score of 146-115, a score that was deceptively close. The Panthers won nine out of the first 10 events to put the meet out of reach and chose to stop placing so that they would not run up the score. Among the highlights of the meet was a pool-record time of 1:00.61 in the 100y IM for Suppan and dual wins for McKenna Moreau '06 in the 100y and 200y backstroke events.

The Panthers' next two meets will be at home as they take on Hamilton on Jan. 14 and Union on Jan. 21. The competitions will be the last chance for the team to prepare before it takes on archrival Williams, winner of the past five NESCAC Championships, in the last dual meet of the year.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say we wanted to beat Williams at the end of this month," said Solomon. "We want to close the gap on them and make them beat us."

With a win over the Ephs, the Panthers would establish themselves as the team to beat in the NESCACs, a position it has been working a long time to attain. With talented individuals throughout its ranks, the team may finally be ready to step up to the next level.