The Middlebury Invitational is a "ditch meet" for the Big Green, meaning no team scores are tracked. Dartmouth was the only Division I school in attendance -- the meet mainly consisted of teams from the New England Small College Athletic Conference, a Division III conference.
Given the circumstances, the meet's true competition was not waged in regard to the team's success as a whole. Instead, the Big Green swimmers used the competition with the best swimmers of Division III to improve upon their times from earlier in the year and build confidence going into the championship event on Feb. 21.
"It was an opportunity to post some good times going into [the Ivy League Championship] to better our placement in our races there," said Mariah Cunnick '06. At the Ivy Championship, the Dartmouth swimmers will be matched up in heats with fellow Ivy League swimmers who have similar best times.
As competition against faster swimmers tends to promote faster swimming by all of the racers in a given heat, the Big Green wants its swimmers to be placed into the fastest possible heats at the Ivy Championship. This meet was an effort to register a faster time for better placement.
Cunnick, the team's co-captain, said she was thrilled with the College squad's execution at Middlebury.
"I think nearly everybody improved in-season best times which will give them better placements going into Ivies than they've previously had," said Cunnick.
Laura Hester '09 clocked in with her fastest ever 100-yard freestyle time at 54.85 seconds. Lizzy Rippe '07 completed her 100-yard fly in well under a minute at 58.25 seconds. Megan Crapster '08 improved her 200-yard backstroke time, setting her new season-best at 2:15.99. In addition, Cunnick broke into the 25-second range in the 50-yard freestyle event, touching in with a time of 25.45 seconds.
The team brought other motivations to Connecticut -- a memorable closing ceremony for a portion of the team. The Middlebury Invitational marked the end of the swimming season for three of the team's swimmers. Heather Jankins '09, Sarah Marlenga '09 and Jaimie Graham '07 will not swim in the Ivy Championship this year, although all three ended their season with strong performances, led by Jankins' fourth-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle in 54.78 seconds.
"We're only allowed to take so many swimmers to Ivies, so [Jankins, Marlenga and Graham] were caught in the numbers crunch," Cunnick said with regret.
The Dartmouth men's team, who set the Middlebury College pool record for the men's 200-yard medley relay in 2003, did not compete this weekend. Both the men's and women's teams will dive back into action on Feb. 23 at the EISL/Ivy League Championship event in Cambridge, Mass. Until then, they will have the next two weeks off.
