Dartmouth's men's swimming and diving program wrapped up its rebuilding season at the EISL championships this weekend. As a whole, the Big Green team was not a top competitor at the meet, placing ninth out of a field consisting of the eight Ivies and the Naval Academy.
With the possibility of a team victory ruled out, Dartmouth's hopes for success rested on the single-race performances of individual swimmers. On the single-race level, Big Green swimmers managed to generate momentum that they hope to carry into next season.
Diver Andrew Berry '08 was disappointed that his team did not climb the EISL ladder this year, but thinks the last-place finish is misrepresentative of Dartmouth's abilities.
"This season didn't finish up as well as a lot of people hoped, but the lack of visible success doesn't really do us justice," he said. "Our freshman class is very strong, and the sophomores stepped it up this season. Several swimmers in the younger classes have cracked the Dartmouth all-time top 10 list in their respective events, with a few already threatening or breaking records."
Kevin Ellis '09 was the outstanding swimmer of the meet. The freshman began his meet with the 500-yard freestyle event on Thursday. He placed 17th overall, but his time of 4:31.21 placed him second in Dartmouth's all-time record book.
Then on Friday, Ellis broke a 25 year-old school record in the 1000-yard freestyle event. Ellis' time of 9:21.73 bested the former record set by Jeff Couture '84 by almost four seconds. Ellis finished sixth overall in the event, the best finish by any Big Green swimmer on the weekend.
In addition to his success in the 1000 free, Ellis scored points for his team in the 1650-yard freestyle event with an eighth-place finish, and contributed to top-10 finishes in two relay events.
Berry also had an impressive weekend. The 5'8" sophomore qualified for the final competitions on both the one-meter and three-meter diving boards, ultimately placing fourth in the one-meter and eighth in the three-meter event.
Berry had ambivalent feelings surrounding his progress this season.
"I made finals on both boards, and finally learned a respectable list of three meter dives," he said. "However, towards the end of the season, I got a little greedy, and felt like I could maybe pull off a couple upsets at EISLs. Overall though, I had a very, very successful season."
Dartmouth finished the meet with 327.5 points, finishing well behind eighth-place Penn, which scored 638.5 points, and Brown, which tallied 665 points on the weekend. Princeton won the meet and the Ivy League championship with a score of 1,393, holding off Harvard, which scored 1,287.
The Big Green will lose the leadership of co-captains Brandon Piper '06 and Kemper Diehl '06, but will remain largely in tact as it aims to move up in the EISL hierarchy in seasons to come.
"The team should be really excited about next year," said Piper. "I'm not sure what the number is exactly, but over half of our [EISL] team was made up of freshmen and sophomores. I'm satisfied to know that the seniors have left the program in good hands. They've got a lot of talent, and when they grow into it they should be quite a force in years to come."
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