This weekend the Dartmouth women's swimming team traveled to Ithaca to a pool where no women's team had ever won. That will never be true again.
The women beat Cornell 159-141 to break their brief losing streak and raise their record to 3-1, 2-1 in the Ivy League.
The 200 medley relay team of Cory Murphy '95, Andrea Hill '97, Karen Bysshe '96 and Deb Whitney '96 opened the meet with a victory, winning in 1:49.42 to extend their unbeaten streak to four meets.
Cornell retook the lead with a victory in the 1000 freestyle against the third place finish of Kathy Luz '96 in 10:49.36.
But Cornell's lead was short lived as Murphy won the 100 backstroke with a new pool record of 58.61.
The lead widened as Hill won the 100 breastroke in 1:05.96 and Catherine Sterling '98 won the 200 butterfly in 2:08.14.
"The majority of the team swam faster than they have all season and everyone on the team did something right." Coach Betsy Wilson said.
"The most frustrating thing about the Cornell meet was that not everyone swam fast as they could. It's difficult for the individual to enjoy such a big victory when they aren't swimming as fast as they can."
On the diving board, Dartmouth had what may have been its most successful meet. Ann Craig '97 won the one meter competition with 221.55 points.
Teammates Sarah Hobson '97 and Allison Ruff '95 combined for second and third. The trio combined for a 1, 3, 4 finish on the three meter board. This time it was Ruff who won, scoring 220.5 points. Overall, the Big Green scored 30 points on the board easily topping Cornell's eight.
The most impressive performance was turned in by Murphy. She added to her two victories in the first half of the meet by setting two more pool records in the 200 backstroke with a 2:05.82 and in the 200 I.M. with a 2:09.45.
Whitney and Hill also turned an additional individual victory in the second half of the meet. Whitney won the 500 freestyle in 5:10.37. While Hill won the 200 breastroke in 2:20.25, one tenth off of her own school record set at the Eastern Championships last season.
The team's next meet is tomorrow at Amherst against the University of Massachusetts.
They will also take on Pennsylvania this Saturday at 3:30 at the Karl B. Michael Pool in what promises to be one of the most exciting meets of the year.
The schedule will be difficult because of the unique nature of the two meets..
"Both meets will be a little different than usual." Wilson said. "We usually don't have a mid-week meet and that will make it a little tougher. We will also be swimming the 13 event men's order at both meets."
However, the outlook is bright. The team is swimming as fast as it ever has and has been called "one of the best squads Dartmouth has ever put together."
The Big Green as a team is off to it's best start and is on track to finish with the highest winning percentage since the team began competing in the Ivy League.
