While the Dartmouth women's swim team started the season with a victory against Cornell University at home on Friday, the men failed to carry the momentum into their dual meet against Cornell University and Harvard University on Saturday. Both teams' freshmen had outstanding performances as they broke water for the first time in their Dartmouth careers.
"The women really stepped up and did a great job," head coach Jim Wilson said. "But I needed the men to get that attitude that we can get out there and get it done."
The women opened up the weekend with a meet against Cornell and Harvard at Karl Michael Pool.
Co-captain Maddie Steiner '11 said she was eager to see how the freshmen would compete going into the meet.
"We thought it would go pretty well based on how [they] practiced," she said.
The freshmen went on to prove themselves, breaking several pool records in the process and helping the Big Green to overtake the Big Red by nearly 50 points.
Katy Feng '14 opened up the meet with a victory in both the three-meter and one-meter diving with scores of 259.35 and 266.20, respectively. Christine Kerr '14 won and broke the pool record in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:51.80, while Kendall Farnham '14 matched her teammate with both a win and a new record of 56.33 in the 100-meter butterfly.
Kerr's twin and fellow teammate, Danielle Kerr '14 also had a strong first meet, earning second in the 200-meter butterfly in 2:04.51 and placing third in the 200-meter IM with a time of 2:09.27.
The freshmen had a "phenomenal" performance on Friday, Steiner said.
"I can't say enough about the women's freshman class," Wilson said. "They set pool records and won pool events for us, and they really pulled up the upperclassmen."
Co-captian Virginia Selden '11 said that one of the team's best assets both at the meet and overall is its depth.
"We would get both first and second or first and third in a race, [whereas] in the past, it was first and fifth," she said. "And it wasn't just freshmen doing well."
Despite equally impressive performances on the men's side, the Big Green were unable to find a victory against either Cornell or Harvard on Saturday.
"The guys had some flat spots that we need to fix," Wilson said. "They need to get in the mode of racing and beating people next to them and not going through the motions."
Still, Wilson said that he was proud of how much the men were able to close the gap with Cornell, losing to the Big Red by less than 50 points.
Nejc Zupan '14, who hails from Kamnik, Slovenia, had a successful meet, winning both the men's 1,000-meter freestyle in 9:28.77 and 500-meter freestyle in 4:38.44. Dylan Gabel '14 also performed well in his first collegiate meet, earning third place in the 500-meter freestyle with a time of 4:43.16.
Other solid performances included a second place finish by Mickey Ahern '12 in the men's 200-meter backstroke and second and third place finishes in the 100-meter butterfly by Will Derdeyn '13 and Albert Roth '13, respectively.
The men ended the meet on a high note, with the team 400-meter freestyle relay team of Marco Chu '11, Ahern, John Hill '12 and Zack Doherty '13 earning second place.
Co-captain Billy Haley '11 said the team met its expectations, as it doubled the mount of points it scored against Cornell and did significantly better against Harvard.
"It's good to see the team progressing in the right direction," he said.
Both the men and women head to Providence, R.I., this coming weekend for a meet against Brown University.
Both Steiner and Selden said they are confident the team will come away with a win.
"Based on yesterday, I don't feel like we have much to worry about," Steiner said.
Haley expressed a similar confidence in the men's prospects against Brown.
"Brown's a good team," he said. "But I think we can easily match them between our freshmen and the rest of the team."
Overall, Wilson said he hopes that both teams can win more dual meets this year and eventually place higher than last year at the Ivy League Championships, where both teams finished last.
"We aren't setting our sights on first or second, but anywhere in between would be nice," he said.
