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The Dartmouth
March 29, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Swimmers look to close gap between academic, athletic showing

Men's and women's swimming and diving hope to improve this season after a very long dry spell.
Men's and women's swimming and diving hope to improve this season after a very long dry spell.

The Dartmouth women's team (1-9, 0-7 Ivy) is coming off a season in which it set 10 school records. The team featured several superior individual swimmers and divers, many of whom return this year. The success of these individuals notwithstanding, the Big Green lacked the depth to defeat league opponents consistently last season, and finished seventh in the Ivy League.

At the Ivy Championships, Dartmouth also placed seventh, though several swimmers recorded school-best times, including the 400 freestyle relay team of Melissa Kern '07, Lizzie Rippe '07, Liz Mancuso '08 and Heather Jankins '09.

Despite the losing record, the Dartmouth women remain optimistic about their performance last year and the potential for an accomplished 2007-08 campaign.

"Last season went fantastic, and the entire team was pleased with the result," current co-captain Mancuso said. "Obviously there is always room for improvement which means fine tuning our strokes, practicing harder and challenging ourselves more. We are well on our way to accomplishing this goal."

Mancuso should be a key contributor to the 2007-08 team. Last year she shattered three school freestyle relay records and helped set another in the 400 individual medley (4:30.97) at the Ivy Championships.

Also expected to score points are Heather Jankins '09, who came off a shoulder injury to finish fifth, seventh and eleventh in the 100 free, 50 free and 100 breaststroke events at the Ivy Championships last year, and two outstanding freshman freestylists, Maddie Steiner '11 and Anna Stonsegard '11.

Steiner, Stonsegard, Mancuso and Jankins teamed up to win the 400 freestyle relay event in a tri-meet against Cornell and league powerhouse Harvard this past weekend. Steiner won Dartmouth's only other event, clocking a 1:55.04 in the 200 free. Overall, the Dartmouth women dropped both meets, 124-174 to Harvard and 139-161 to Cornell.

The Big Green also fell to Colgate on Sunday, 134-160.

"Colgate was a tough team and I think we did really well against them," Mancuso said. "We are swimming faster this year than we did last year at this point, which is extremely exciting."

This season marks the second year that the women's team is coached by fourteen-year men's coach Jim Wilson. The College hired Wilson after Joann Brislin, women's head coach for nine seasons, resigned her post to become Dartmouth's assistant director for physical education and her replacement, Bucknell head coach Jerry Foley, renounced his commitment to coach less than a month before the start of the season. Mancuso was part of a group of then-sophomore swimmers who interviewed last-minute candidates during the summer term.

"[Men's coach] Jim Wilson was the most qualified coach for the position, and combining the men's and women's teams was thought to be extremely beneficial to both teams," she said.

Uniting the men's and women's teams has yielded a more supportive relationship between the teams, according to Mancuso. The teams hold joint practices, and having more swimmers in the pool increases the intensity of practice and the motivation of the Dartmouth swimmers.

Both teams additionally work together with a new weight coach. Now, much more emphasis is placed on dryland workouts, in which swimmers build strength and flexibility outside the pool. One particular focus is developing leg strength through weight training, spinning and resistance exercises.

The Big Green men opened their 2007-08 campaign by falling to Cornell and Harvard, 70-228 and 72-226, respectively, in a tri-meet at Dartmouth's Karl Michael Pool.

Star diver Andrew Berry '08 captured the one-meter and three-meter events. After qualifying for the NCAA's Zone Diving event last year, Berry is poised to put an exclamation point on an impressive collegiate career.

The team redeemed the weekend sweep by defeating Colgate at home on Sunday afternoon, 170-124.

Kevin Ellis '09 won the 100-yard, 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle events. Ellis, the ECAC Division I Swimmer of the week during last year's league championships, should be one of the Big Green's top scorers this year.

"We're hoping to go undefeated in out-of-league meets this season by following up our win this last weekend with another win against BC at home in a couple of weeks," freestyler Porter Diehl '09 said. Diehl won the 1000-yard freestyle event vesus Colgate.

Last season, the Dartmouth men finished a disappointing ninth in the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL), composed of each Ivy League university plus the Naval Academy.

Team members say the Big Green has suffered several years of poor recruitment stemming from the 2003 decision by the administration to eliminate the swimming and diving program.

"We keep getting very small classes of incoming freshman. We've got some great swimmers who'll do well against the rest of the Ivy competition, but without a larger squad, we're going to have to keep waiting for a major turn around of the team," Diehl said.

The team may be able to compete at a higher level in the very near future, thanks to a crop of freshman talent that has already made a significant impact. Marco Chu '11 and Jon Panzl '11 swam for the winning A team in the 400 medley against Colgate. Each picked up individual victories as well, Chu in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke and Panzl in the 200-yard fly.

Co-captain Joe Braunreuther '08 is confident that the 2007-08 campagin is not another rebuilding season.

"We are faster, stronger, and more competitive than last year. We're going out there to win meets," he said.

The Dartmouth men and women travel to Bristol, Rhode Island next Saturday to compete against Brown. The men will take on the squad from the Naval Academy as well.