Although the team kicked off its season in November, Dartmouth has not faced any of the teams that will compete at the Invitational yet this season. Entering the meet without prior knowledge of the other teams may prove beneficial, allowing swimmers to focus only on their individual performances.
The men's and women's teams are expected to perform well, according to Danielle Kerr '14.
"This weekend the team goal is to win each dual meet as well as win the entire invitational," she said.
Although none of the women's teams entering the meet have a winning record, the Big Green's (3-4, 2-3 Ivy) competition has earned a number of impressive wins. Boston College (7-9) beat Bryant (5-9-1) on Oct. 15, though Bryant has had recent success winning two of its last three dual meets.
The women's team will rely heavily on the success of Kerr and her twin sister, Christine Kerr '14, who are both talented rookie swimmers.
Maddie Steiner '11 said that the sisters are "absolutely unbelievable swimmers," adding that "it's amazing that they ended up at Dartmouth."
Although the Kerr sisters are twins, they have very different swimming styles.
While Christine Kerr describes herself as mostly a sprint and mid-distance freestyle swimmer, Danielle Kerr is primarily a distance swimmer.
Christine Kerr is a Dartmouth competitor in the 200-yard butterfly event. She will compete in the 1000-yard freestyle race for the second time in her life at the Invitational this weekend.
Danielle Kerr has competed in some of the longest events including the 1000-yard freestyle but also swims in the 200-yard butterfly, the 200-yard individual medley and the 40-yard individual medley races.
Both have performed impressively this season Christine Kerr achieved a personal record in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle events, and Danielle Kerr has set a personal best in the 400-yard individual medley.
Christine Kerr said any pressure put on her by her team has been helpful, forcing her to improve her performance. Still in her first Big Green season, Christine Kerr said she enjoys how the team views each effort as collective, even individual races.
"It's great because not only do I feel like I'm helping the team, I'm also getting some personal best times in the season which doesn't happen often," she said.
The sisters hope to perform well this weekend Christine Kerr aiming to improve on her race times from last weekend and Danielle Kerr to focus on racing technique.
"This weekend I would like to focus more on my race strategy and hopefully get a fast time that will seed me high going into our Ivy Championships," Danielle Kerr said.
The men's team (1-4, 1-4 Ivy) will face three squads with winning records Boston College (10-6), UMass (4-1) and Maine (5-3).
Will Derdeyn '13, a men's butterfly swimmer, said the team's goals for this weekend are to achieve results that will prepare it for the Ivy Championships in early March.
"Individually I'm looking to improve on my season bests and get some nice seed times for Ivies," Derdeyn said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. "Our goals for Ivies are to do better than we did last year and move up in the standings."
Albert Roth '13 said that although the Big Green will face strong competition from UMass, the team expects to perform well this weekend.
"[UMass has] posted some pretty fast times throughout the season," he said in an e-mail to The Dartmouth. "But we should be able to edge them."
The Invitational begins on Friday at 5 p.m. and continues on Saturday at 10 a.m.
