"We had a tough meet yesterday with Brown and Navy," men's and women's teams head coach Jim Wilson said. "That took a little out of us, but the overall goal [against Colgate] was to stay [focused] from swimming hard yesterday, and for the most part, we accomplished it."
On the men's side the freshmen had some strong performances against Brown and Navy. After defeating both Harvard and Cornell swimmers last weekend, rookie Albert Roth '13 once again won the 100-yard butterfly in 51.36. Onejune Chang '13 took second place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.32. Will Derdeyn '13 also placed second in the 50-yard freestyle in 21.70. The young team of Mickey Ahern '12, Chang, Derdeyn, and Zack Doherty '13 took second to Brown in the 200-yard medley relay, defeating three strong contending teams from Navy.
"The freshmen had phenomenal days," co-captain Scott Sorensen '10 said. "It was fun to see them step up and break out of their shells a little bit."
For the women, divers Erica Serpico '12 and Kate O'Brien '13 were the highlights of the day, as they finished first and second, respectively, in the three-meter dive. Serpico also won the one-meter, beating out Brown's top diver, Katie Olko, by almost 20 points.
"All of our hard work during practice and training really showed up at the meet," O'Brien said. "It was a big confidence booster for the rest of the season."
On the swimming side, the women were unable to match the Bears, but co-captain Catherine Armstrong '10 said she was happy with the team's overall performance.
"We had a lot of fun and we had a lot of really good standout performances," Armstrong said.
Isa Guardalabene '13 took second in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:12.68 and in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.87. She missed first place in the 50-yard freestyle by only four-hundreths of a second.
Virginia Selden '11 also finished second in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of in 2:10.30. Teammate Galen Berry '12 took the second spot in the 200-yard backstroke.
The dynamic 200-yard medley relay team of Berry, Guardalabene, Caitlin Keenan '12 and Kelsey Pinson '12 placed second in 1:52.38, and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Caitlin Foley '13, Guardalabene, Elizabeth Kamai '12 and Maddie Steiner '11 finished second with a time of 3:38.33.
"Last year at Ivies, the women beat Brown by a couple of points and today they took it to us," Wilson said. "But it's not the end of the year yet."
On Sunday, the men shut out Colgate,, winning 11 of the 16 events of the day. Highlights included the 100-yard butterfly, where Roth, Chang, and Marco Chu '11 finished in first, second, and third, respectively. Ahern and Ray Li '12 won first and second place, respectively, in the 100-yard backstroke, with times of 53.27 and 55.52. Rookie Ben Reasons '13 and Matt Stumpf '12 were also the top two finishers in the 100-yard breaststroke, with Reasons finishing the race in 1:01.23 and Stumpf in 1:01.47.
"We had a good feeling we could beat this team," Sorensen said. "Our goal was to come out and take it to them, and that's exactly what we did. Coming off yesterday, we had a lot of momentum."
The freshmen also had strong second days, with Chang winning the 100-yard freestyle in 47.22, Doherty coming out on top in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.62, and Roth winning the 400-yard individual medley in 4:08.88, a full nine seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.
"We wanted the depth of our team to tee off on their fastest guys," Wilson said. "I think the guys really stepped up from [the Brown and Navy meet] and did a good job."
Although the women were unable to edge out the Raiders, they improved in nearly every event from the previous meet, according to co-captain Carolyn Rippe '10.
Kelsey Pinson '12 won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:00.64. Fellow sophomores Berry and Kamai placed second in the 400-yard individual medley and in the 100-yard freestyle, respectively. Veteran Maddie Steiner '11 also finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke, with a time of 2:27.50.
"People swam different events than they normally do," Rippe said. "But they really went out after it, and they did really well in some of those."
Freshman Charlotte Williams '13 and Guardalabene also had strong meets, with Williams finishing second in the 500-yard freestyle, while Guardalabene took second in the 50-yard freestyle.
After its annual winter training trip, the women's team will take on the University of Vermont in Burlington at 12 p.m. on January 9th. Both the men and women will face off against Boston University at Karl Michael Pool at 1 p.m. on Jan. 10, 2010.
