Women’s swimming and diving makes impressive splash at NESCACS with first-years

Last weekend, thirteen first-year women represented Middlebury at the NESCAC Championship hosted by Williams College.  Though they lacked depth with such a small squad, the girls had an extremely successful meet, finishing in ninth place ahead of Bowdoin and Trinity and coming up two points shy of eighth-place Wesleyan.  At the top of the scoreboard at the end of the weekend was Williams, followed by Amherst and Tufts.

The Panthers got off to a fast start on Friday, finishing the day in sixth place despite it being every swimmer’s first taste of college championship competition.  They fought hard until the very end, dropping in the standings only because it was tough to compete against teams with four times as many swimmers.
“Not having the upperclassmen there to rely on forced each one of them to serve in a leadership role much earlier than what normally might be expected,” said Coach Peter Solomon.  “They all passed with flying colors.”

The highlights of the weekend belonged to Andie Tibbetts ’14 who set Middlebury records in both the 50- and 100-yard backstroke with times of 27.03 and 57.10, respectively.  She just missed the 200-yard backstroke record with a time of 2:05.93.  Her leadoff leg in the 400-yard medley relay was an NCAA “A” Automatic Qualifying Standard while her performances in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke both were NCAA “B” Consideration Standards.

Other swimmers enjoying individual success at the meet were Rachael Curtiss ’14, third behind Tibbetts in the 50-yard backstroke, and Alexandra Edel ’14 who earned an NCAA “B” Consideration Standard with her fourth-place performance in the 200-yard individual medley.

“I couldn’t have been more impressed with how the swimmers and divers performed.  The experience that our women bring from this championship meet will unify them as a class and make them stronger in the years ahead,” said Solomon.

Though the Panthers could not enter more than two teams in the relays, the girls made up for it with extremely fast swims.  Tibbetts, Edel, Caroline Santinelli ’14 and Maisie Ogata ’14 led the girls to a solid fifth-place finish in the competitive 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:38.01.  The team made up of Tibbetts, Edel, Caroline Roos ’14 and Maddie Gilbert ’14 finished seventh in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 3:58.98.

On the diving side, Colleen Harper ’14 represented the Panthers and finished in sixth place with a score of 363.15 points in the three-meter event.

“We made a conscious decision to make our opportunity to swim as positive as possible.  We knew we were swimming not only for ourselves, but for the people who have supported us all season.  We were able to use this as motivation to go all-out,” said Tibbetts.

“Also, seeing our teammates in the stands cheering us on was a force that was impossible to ignore.”
The girl’s performance was a welcome return to action after off-the field issues had sidelined many Middlebury swimming and diving atheletes recently.

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