Erica Serpico '12 was the highlight of the Dartmouth women's swimming and diving team this past weekend at the Ivy League Championships in Cambridge, Mass., becoming only the second Big Green female diver in history to win the one-meter dive at Ivies. Overall, however, Dartmouth finished in eighth place with a score of 585.5 points. Princeton took home the win with 1,465 points.
"This season has been a real challenge for everyone both physically and mentally," co-captain Carolyn Rippe '10 said. "It may not have been necessarily reflected in overall point totals, but I was really impressed with how everyone swam and really stepped it up."
Serpico came back from a disappointing 12th place finish in the three-meter dive to take first in the one-meter.
"It was really nice to have my team really close to the diving board cheering loudly after all my dives," she said. "It made it a lot more fun and made me a lot less nervous."
The meet featured several other standout performances from members of the Big Green (2-12, 0-7 Ivy).
Charlotte Williams '13 broke a school record in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:29.66, finishing 10th overall.
Both Kelsey Pinson '12 and Maddie Steiner '11 made the finals in the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard freestyle, respectively.
Steiner set a new school record in the 200-yard free with a time of 1:51.49 and also finished eighth in the finals of the 100-yard freestyle.
Galen Barry '12 placed tenth overall in the 200-yard backstroke.
All of the swimmers achieved season-best times, and some even achieved lifetime bests, according to Rippe.
Despite the record performances, the Big Green was ultimately unable to meet its goal of defeating Brown University and Cornell University. Rippe said the team's small size made it hard to match the depth of other schools with many more swimmers.
"We had a few people who weren't feeling great at the meet," co-captain Catherine Armstrong '10 said. "That's really hard because they [wanted] to contribute, and they [had] worked hard all season."
Still, Armstrong said she is proud of the team's performance this season.
"We faced some challenges in the dual meet season, but we made it through," Armstrong said. "We're in a really strong position for next year."
The men's team (3-9, 0-7 Ivy) heads to Princeton, N.J., this weekend for the Men's Ivy League Championships, where they will be looking to improve upon last year's eighth place finish.
