"My diving's gotten better this year," Serpico said. "I'm jumping higher and it's made a lot of my dives easier. I still have to keep this consistency for the next two weeks and dive well in the Ivies and the rest of our meets."
In addition to extending her winning streak, Serpico broke the Karl Michael Pool record in the three meter dive with a score 311.78. Serpico now owns both pool diving records after setting the one-meter mark against Boston University earlier this season.
"Today I competed with a new dive for the first time that counted for a lot of difficulty points," Serpico said. "That dive helped me score a lot and the rest of my dives went pretty well. I'm happy to finally [break the record]."
Serpico said that the entire diving team performed well, especially in the three-meter event. The divers' consistency contributed to the team's overall success. Bridget Duffey '11 and Kate O'Brien '13 placed second and third, respectively, behind Serpico in both diving events.
"A lot of the team's success can be attributed to both [Serpico's] and the other divers' consistently strong performances," co-captain Catherine Armstrong '10 said. "[Serpico is] really focused and she's really committed and that reflects in her performances."
Although the Big Green (2-9, 0-5 Ivy) swept the top three positions in both diving events, Dartmouth only placed first in two out of 14 swimming events. Caitlin Nicholson '12 placed first in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:10:21 and Maddie Steiner '11 won a tight 500-yard freestyle in 5:14:24. Steiner battled for position throughout the final 200 yards with UNH junior Kiersten Wollenzien before outstretching her rival to win the race by one hundredth of a second.
"I actually didn't know I was swimming the 500 until [that day]," Steiner said. "I took it pretty easy the first 400 [yards] by drafting which was nice because I was able to save up for the end. I just really wanted to win. A lot of people don't realize they are swimming on the lane line. When I was a little bit behind her, she was essentially pulling me with her wave."
Because of the scoring mechanics of a dual swim meet, first place finishes are extremely important. A first-place finish earns the same number of points as the second, third and fourth place finishes combined.
"Usually we have a few more [first place finishes], but they had at least one strong girl in each event," Steiner said. "I think we have more depth than they do."
The Big Green showed its depth by placing at least two swimmers in the top four of all but one race. Galen Barry '12 had a strong day, placing second in both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstrokes.
Despite a less intense work-out regime this week because of midterms, Armstrong said that many of the swimmers are able to draw momentum from the weekend's victories to get back into rhythm.
"In some ways, this meet was hard because we are kind of in the weekday mindset of classes, midterms and homework," she said. "But the fact that we just had a meet this weekend allowed us to revert back to a swimming mindset."
In the meet's first individual event, Armstrong broke her personal record in the 1000-yard freestyle. Her time of 10:59.96 earned her a third-place finish behind two Wildcat swimmers and improved her career best time in the event by one second.
"Part of swimming the distance races is figuring out what strategy works best for you," Armstrong said. "I started off relatively easy and tried to get faster as the race went on."
This meet also showcased the talent of Dartmouth's freshman class. Charlotte Williams '13 placed second in the 200-yard individual medley and third in the 200-yard breaststroke. Classmates Caitlin Foley '13 and Isa Guardalabene '13 secured second and third place finishes, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle.
The Big Green will travel this weekend to face off against Northeastern University at noon in the Barletta Natatorium in Boston, Mass.
