Swimmers and divers excel in home invitational

The women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams swam strongly this past weekend in their invitational tournament. The tournament consisted of Williams, Dartmouth men and University of Vermont women. The Panther swimmers were victorious in all events except for one relay and they now feel confident as they enter the NESCAC tournament.

“This weekend was a nice tune-up for our swimmers, particularly our relays, which won five out of six” said head coach Peter Solomon. “I felt it was important for our swimmers to get used to the championship format swimming three sessions in a row and they delivered.”

The Panthers had numerous impressive first-place finishers. The 400-medley relay team finished with a time of 4:07.53. Annie Friedlander ’11 swam the backstroke, Salena Casha ’13 swam the breaststroke, Katherine Loftus ’12 took off with the butterfly and Audrey Tolbert ’13 concluded the relay with the freestyle. The 400-freestyle relay team also came out victorious with co-captain Katie Remington ’10 leading her younger teammates, who all competed with high energy. The 400 freestyle relay included Nora Daly ’13, Briehan Burke ’13, Ana Villarreal ’12 and Remington. The 200-freestyle relay team, consisting of Daly, Loftus, Remington and Tolbert, took first, finishing with a time of 1:39.44.

In addition to taking part in the two relay teams, Remington also competed in and won the 50-meter freestyle, completing the event with a time of 25.09, a personal best. Co-captain Katie Soja ’10 took first in the 200-butterfly, finishing with a time of 2:13.27. Tolbert also won the 500-meter freestyle, finishing with a time of 5:17.55. Molly Eberhardt ’11 also swam well, concluding her season by taking off a tremendous amount of time from her distance swims.

Gemma Collins ’12 dominated the diving competition, accumulating 409.25 points in the 1-meter dive and 406.10 points in the 3-meter dive. Both of these scores reach the NCAA consideration standard. The women’s swimmers and divers are extremely focused and are excited to prepare for the upcoming NESCACs.

When asked how the women’s team felt at the conclusion of the meet, Remington responded, “It was awesome. We’re totally ready for NESCACs and I couldn’t be more excited. Getting up and racing against some of the best swimmers in the nation this weekend was pretty unreal and set the energy that we’re looking to carry into our taper for the next two weeks.”

“[We have] gotten over some of the sickness we were dealing with earlier in the season, which is nice,” added Soja.

Remington also commented on the women hosting NESCACs. “I’m hyped out of my mind about having NESCACs here at [Middlebury] this year for my last year,” she said, “and I think we’re going to wow a lot of people.”

The men’s team also competed strongly.  The 400- and 200-medley relay teams swam to victory, as did the 400 and 200-freestyle relay teams. The 400-medley team consists of backstroker  and co-captain Schuyler Beeman ’10, breaststroker Matt Vukich ’11, butterflier John Dillon ’12 and freestyler Ted Hall ’12. The 200-medley team consists of Dillon, Vukich and Beeman, and Adam Schaffer ’12, who took over the butterfly in the event. The 200-freestyle relay team consisted of Nick Daly ’12, Beeman, Jay Li ’11 and Dillon. In addition to being part of the four victorious relay teams, Dillon also won the 100- and 200-meter backstroke. His 100-meter backstroke, which he swam in a time of 51.47, is up for NCAA B Standard and also sets a new Middlebury College pool record.

“This past weekend was a great opportunity to get up and race, preparing ourselves for our upcoming NESCACs,” said Beeman. “The invitational allowed us to get used to the morning trial and evening final sessions, which is the format of our NESCACs. It was like a test run.”

The Middlebury swimmers and divers have done exceptionally well, both individually and collectively this season, and the teams anxiously await their upcoming NESCAC meets in which they hope to swim as fast and as strong as ever.