The Big Green women's team (2-5, 0-3 Ivy) saw several season-best times posted against the Terriers.
Anna Sonstegard '11 won the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 5:12.35, while the 200-yard medley team of Carolyn Rippe '10, Heather Jankins '09, Liz Mancuso '08 and Hillary Preston '09 won by the narrowest of margins, clocking in a time of 1:50.10.
In addition to two relay wins, Jankins finished the day with two season-best times in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke events. Co-captain Mancuso took home three victories in the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard medley relay, leading Dartmouth to their 154-146 win.
"Considering we just came off of the training trip and started new classes, I was really happy with the outcome," Mancuso said after Saturday's victory.
Quick to turn the focus away from her individual accomplishments, Mancuso added that the atmosphere at the Karl Michael Pool gave the Big Green the edge.
"I think the team was just really excited to race in our home pool and with such a great showing of Dartmouth fans," she said.
Mancuso cites strong efforts in the relays as the key to the team's success.
"Winning both the relays was huge points-wise, but in a meet that is close, every point counts," Mancuso said. "We posted some great times and had some season bests, results like this will definitely help our training and attitudes in the upcoming meets."
Strong performances by Julianne Mifflin '08 and Bridget Duffey '11 helped the women's diving team maintain a competitive edge. But Boston University diver Tess Waresmith won the one-meter and three-meter diving events and set a new pool record in the three-meter event with her score of 304.88.
Dartmouth's men's team (1-6, 0-4 EISL) enjoyed mixed successes, losing to the strong Boston University men's squad 189.5 to 110.5 despite individual victories by Alex Fidel '09 and Joe Braunreuther '08. Fidel won the 50-yard freestyle with an impressive 21.91, breaking the 22-second mark for the first time in his career. Braunreuther secured a victory in the 1000-yard freestyle with a final time of 9:51.87.
These were the only two victories for Dartmouth as the Terriers claimed first place in 14 of 16 events.
Braunreuther's achievement was a marked advance over previous races. The senior co-captain built an early lead and held off Boston University racer Tyson Slesnick by just over two seconds.
"I would attribute my time drop to the [Ireland] training and better racing strategy," Braunreuther said.
Braunreuther also expressed happiness over Fidel's sprint win.
"Alex Fidel had astonishing time drops in the 50-yard freestyle and in the relay," he said. "He has stepped it up in workouts and it clearly shows in his races."
Braunreuther also cited Porter Diehl '09, Gordon Russell '08, Mike Brown '11 and Drew Wenzel '08 as key performers in the meet on Saturday.
Diver Andrew Berry '08 placed second in the one-meter event, falling less than 15 points short of victory despite having been out of commission for several weeks due to injury. Brown and Charlie Knape '10 also performed well off of the one- and three-meter boards.
Terrier diver Andre Watson secured victory in the two events with scores of 319.08 and 316.13, respectively.
Both the men's and women's teams are looking forward to next Saturday's meet with Yale and the University of Pennslyvania.
"Yale and Penn are going to be tough teams to race because they are so strong in the Ivy League," Mancuso said. "But if we go in with the attitude and determination that we had today against BU, I think we can have some impressive swims and dives."
On the men's side, the team looks ready to bounce back and return to winning form.
"The team will continue to train hard, and looks to have strong performances against Yale and Penn," Braunreuther said.
The men's and women's teams will travel to New Haven on Saturday, Jan. 19 to take on the two Ivy League powerhouses.
