The women's team finished up its dual meet season this weekend against Yale, as the Big Green fell behind early and never caught up, losing 197-101. The loss leaves their season record at 4-6 overall and 2-5 in the Ivy League.
"This is our last dual meet," Erika Monahan '96. "It makes me happy and sad to see some great swims and dives for the last time in our home pool."
The 400 yard medley relay team of Amy Schneeberger '97, Andrea Hill '97, Karyn Bysshe '96 and Deb Whitney '96 opened the meet finishing second in 1:50.74.
But already up 13-4, Yale swept the 1,000 yard freestyle, to increase its lead. Dartmouth was led by Emilie Ellis '97 who finished fourth in 10:47.96.
Yale repeated the performance by sweeping both the 200 yard freestyle and the 100 yard backstroke, leaving the Big Green with a 61-12 deficit.
But Dartmouth came back behind Hill. Hill won the 100 yard breaststroke in 1:05.06, over two seconds in front of her nearest competitor. Catherine Sterling '98 followed her performance up with a victory in the 200 yard butterfly, finishing in 2:08.73. Schneeberger finished third in 2:11.36 to help cut the deficit to 40 points, 75-35.
The Big Green performed solidly on the diving boards, taking second, third and fourth on the one meter board. Courtney DuBois '99 led the squad scoring 246.6 points, followed by Ann Craig '97 with 241.875 points and Sarah Hobson '97 with 235.20 points, leaving the Big Green down 101-47.
Deb Whitney opened the second half of the meet, swimming to second place in the 100 yard freestyle in 54.09, followed by Karyn Bysshe in 55.48 and Erica Wygonik '99 in 56.20 points.
Then it was Yale's turn as the Bulldogs broke the pool record in the 200 yard backstroke. The Big Green looked to Hill to start another rally and she did, breaking the pool record in the 200 yard breaststroke and becoming the first woman to go under 2:20 in the Karl B. Michael Pool. Hill won the event in 2:19.41 followed by teammate Evan Greene '99 who finished fifth.
In the 100 yard butterfly, Bysshe led the Big Green to another victory, coming from behind to out touch Yale's Malinda Davies and win in 59.78.
Again, the Dartmouth divers turned in a solid second, third and fourth place finish in the three meter diving competition. Dubois led the divers scoring 249.15 points, Hobson followed with 246.75 points and Monahan was fourth with 238.2 points. The performance left the Big Green down 170-92.
"Overall, we've been picking up and hopefully by Easterns we'll have all the dives together at the same time," Diving Coach Ron Keenhold said. "Our divers performed very well, the problem was that each of them missed one dive and that really opened the door for Yale. All four still have a chance to make finals and consoles at Easterns. One of my dreams is to have all four divers there."
The final event of the day was the 400 yard freestyle relay with Schneeberger, Bysshe, Wendy Simon '98 and Whitney. After falling behind early, the team caught up on the second length only to be touched out at the finish, taking second place in 3:39.45.
The team will enter post-season competition in two weeks at the Eastern Championships held at Brown University February 22-24.
