The Big Green finished seventh at the Eastern Women's Swimming League Championships at Princeton University this weekend. The performance capped women's swimming's most successful season ever.
The women finished 7-4 (3-4 in the Ivy League) breaking their previous record of six wins in a season. The seventh place finish also tied their highest finish at the E.W.S.L. Championships.
Dartmouth began the first day's competition by shattering the school record in the 400 Medley Relay. The 400 Medley team also broke the Princeton's pool record by swimming a 3:50.75 in the morning at the preliminary heat. The time obliterated the old school record of 3:52.8. The team ended up finishing third with a time of 3:52.17 in the finals that night. The Big Green's 200 Freestyle relay met with similar success. Their time of 1:38.76 in the preliminary race broke the old school record by .2 seconds.
In the individual competitions, Dartmouth dominated the consolation finals of the 200 Individual Medley Deb Whitney '96 swam to a 2:08.54, finishing 11th. She was followed by Corinne Murphy '95 with a 2:08.54 and Karyn Bysshe '96 with a 2:08.86. The Big Green ended the day with 73 points and in eighth place.
Dartmouth Women's Diving competed on the one-meter board on Thursday, the first day of competition. The team was led by Ally Ruff '95 who finished 12th with a score of 313.45. Deborah Uchtmann '97 scored 269.50, earning 21st place. She was followed by Sarah Hobson '97 in 22nd and Erika Monahan '96 in 23rd.
During the second day of competition, Dartmouth move into seventh place over Cornell University. Backstroker Anne Gibson '97, breastroker Andrea Hill '97, butterflyer Bysshe and freestyler Anne Souter '96 finished 4th in the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:47.57.
Individually, Murphy finished third in the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.38. Natasha Lam '97 and Andrea Hill '97 put in strong performances in the 100 breastroke for the Big Green. Lam finished 13th in 1:08.24 and Hill finished fourth in 1:05.40.
The finals of the 100 butterfly were dominated by Dartmouth's Whitney, who finished second in 57.53 and Bysshe, who finished fifth in 58.40. The day's events were capped by Amy Schneeberger's '94 school record in the 400 I.M. After swimming a 4:38.94 in that morning's prelims, she returned that evening to swim a 4:37.61, finishing 14th.
On Saturday, the final day of competition, Hill broke her own school record in the 200 breastroke by grabbing fifth place with a 2:20.21. Bysshe and Whitney returned to butterfly competition, this time in the 200-meter.
Bysshe shattered the school record of 2:06.8, swimming to second place and a 2:05.00. Whitney finished seventh in 2:07.95. Schneeberger joined them, winning the consolation final in 2:07.16, the fifth fastest time overall.
The 400 freestyle relay was the final relay of the competition. By this time, the theme of Dartmouth's relays was already new school records. Souter, Whitney, Murphy and Bysshe were true to form, breaking the old record of 3:35.8, by swimming a 3:32.97.
After being plagued with problems all season, the divers dove off the three meter in competition for the first time since February 5th. Ruff earned a spot in the finals by placing sixth in the prelims. She ended up eighth, with a score of 371.35.
Monahan also turned in a strong performance, finishing 15th with a score of 316.15. Ruff will compete in the NCAA Regional Championship held at Naval Academy March 11 and 12.
"The irony of it is, we performed better on the three meter board despite a lack of practice," Coach Ron Keenhold said.
Every season since Coach Betsy Mitchell took charge of the Big Green, the women have improved over the previous year's record.
