PRINCETON, N.J. " The Dartmouth women finished eighth at the Ivy League Women's Swimming and Diving Championship at Princeton in a three-day event that was littered with record-breaking performances. During the first day of competition, the 200-freestyle-relay quartet of junior Mariah Cunnick, sophomore Lizzie Rippe, junior Kristin Simunovich, and freshman Liz Mancuso combined for 1:36.40, which earned them a seventh place finish and took out last year's mark of 1:37.17. In the 50 freestyle, Cunnick finished 16th in the finals with 24.36 after turning in a time of 24.11 in the preliminaries. Mancuso was 23rd with 24.72 after clocking 24.42 in the prelims.
On the second day of swimming, sophomore Melissa Kern finished seventh in the 1000 freestyle. Kern's time of 10:16.37 is the all-time second best time at Dartmouth, just short of her personal best of 10:11.80, which she posted last year in the same championship. Kern also turned in a time of 1:54.19, leading off the 800 free relay. Mancuso '08 continued her strong performance with 1:54.69 in the 200 free. She and fellow freshman Katherine Davis, who swam a 1:55.34 in the same event, broke into the all-time top 10 list. Freshman Jackie Benson had the sixth fastest time in school history with 1:06.77 in the 100 breaststroke.
More strong swimming highlighted Dartmouth's final day of competition at Princeton. Sophomore Lauren Betzing turned in a school record of 2:03.70 in the 200-yard butterfly consolation final, nearly two seconds faster than the next finisher in the consolation race. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Rippe, Cunnick, Mancuso, and Simunovich dream team combined for a school-record swim of 3:30.42 in the 400 free relay finals, the final event of the championship. Junior Dana Charles swam the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:21.69 during the championship final for the second-quickest finish in the event in program history. Benson placed fourth in the 200 breast consolation final with a swim of 2:24.48.
"It was great to send off some of our seniors with their lifetime-best swims," said Simunovich. "Alyssa Hochman and Alex B. knew it was their last chance to swim with a Dartmouth cap on, and they left everything they had in the pool." Although it was the last swim for the two senior leaders, Simunovich knows that her class is "ready to step up next year, take leadership of this team, and hopefully come back with a win against cornell."
After three days of competition, Harvard won the Ivy League Women's Swimming & Diving Championship with 1,615 total points. The Big Green finished eighth with 542; just nine points shy of seventh-place Cornell.
