The Dartmouth men's and women's swimming and diving teams shared the pool at Middlebury Wednesday night, competing simultaneously in separately scored meets against the host team. The men came out on top, winning handily at 140-101, while the women were unable to avert a close 128-115 defeat.
Team co-captain Nathan Fidel '02, fresh off his weekend heroics against Columbia and UNH, led the men with a 22.49 victory in the 50-yard freestyle. Following suit were the team's indomitable freshmen, who combined to take four events.
Thomas Sanford '04 contributed wins in the 200 individual medley (1:58.82) and the 500 free (4:51.31), while Grant Chang '04 and Matt Derr '04 touched first in the 200 butterfly and the 100 free, respectively.
Finally, co-captain Aaron DeWitt '02 won the 200 breaststroke, only narrowly edging out another Big Green freshman, second-place finisher Benjamin Wade '04.
For the women's team, it was the divers who turned in the evening's top performance, a sweep of the first three spots in the one-meter competition. Emily Barsky '03 took first, while Danielle Fritze '02 and Katie Crawford '04 finished second and third, respectively. Fritze went on to best the field in three-meter diving.
"It's always fun when you go 1-2-3," said Fritze. "Especially since it was a close meet and we were just looking to give the team points."
In swimming, sprinter Kristen Podolak '01 clocked a 54.56 first-place finish in the 100 freestyle.
"It was a hard meet to lose since we were so close," said Fritze. "But there were definitely some very good performances."
Both teams will travel to Philadelphia this Saturday to face Penn and Yale. The men are now at 2-4, while the women (0-7) will be looking for their first win.
"It was really exciting to capture our second straight win in four days," Derr said. "Hopefully we can use these past two meets as an psychological boost going into Saturday against Penn and Yale and Wednesday against UVM."
