Heading into the Championships, the Big Green aimed to finish fifth or higher, with as many swimmers as possible competing in finals events.
"We were kind of reaching for a fourth place finish, but we couldn't be happier with fifth," Danielle Kerr '14 said.
Dartmouth ended the Championships with 846.5 points, beating the three teams that it had already defeated in Ivy League dual meets this season. The University of Pennsylvania finished sixth with 767 points, Brown University finished seventh with 688.5 and Cornell University came in last with 630.5 points. Dartmouth had hoped to beat a team that it had lost to earlier in the season, but fell short of this goal, as Harvard University took first place honors at the Championships with 1,478.5 points, followed by Princeton University with 1,310.5, Yale University with 1,075.5 and Columbia University with 1,057 points.
The meet, hosted at Harvard's Blodgett Pool, ran from Thursday to Saturday, and the three days of events were both physically and emotionally taxing.
Head coach Jim Wilson said the Big Green trains for the Championships all season long and reaped the benefits of its training throughout the weekend.
"We know that Ivies are three days long, and everything we do during the course of the year leads up to that," Wilson said. "Some of the other teams fell apart on the last day, but because we train for this meet, our last day and our evening swims stayed really strong."
The Big Green started off the meet on Thursday with a flourish, as the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Isa Guardalabene '13, Siobhan Hengemuhle '15, Sasha Alcon '15 and Mary Van Metre '14 took sixth place, setting a new school record with a time of 1:34.02.
Dartmouth continued to find success later in the meet on Thursday, as twins Danielle and Christine Kerr '14 finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 500-yard freestyle.
Dartmouth also performed well in the 400-yard medley relay, with Meredith Sweeney '14, Charlotte Williams '13, Kendall Farnham '14 and Alcon posting a 3:48.99 time, earning eighth place.
The divers performed well, earning points for the Big Green in both diving events. Erica Serpico '12 took seventh on the one-meter boards on Thursday, and Kendall MacRae '15, in the B final, earned 11th place. The Big Green divers placed ninth and 10th on the three-meter boards as well, with Katy Feng '14 taking ninth on Satuday and Serpico taking 10th.
Friday saw strong swims by the Big Green women as well, as school records continued to fall over the course of the day.
"It really lifts the team when you see other people doing well," Danielle Kerr said. "Even if you aren't doing as well individually, you are happy for those who are, and it definitely helps the team gain momentum."
Friday's events were highlighted by record-breaking swims in both individual and relay events. In an eighth place finish, Valeria Orellana '15, Williams, Farnham and Hengemuhle set the new school record for the 200-yard medley relay at 1:44.56. And in an exciting fourth place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay, Christine Kerr, Hengemuhle, Alcon and Danielle Kerr posted a time of 7:24.85 to break another school record.
Two individual records fell on Saturday as well, as Rebecca Butler '15 swam a 4:23.96 in the 400-meter Individual Medley for a 10th place finish. With an impressive third place finish, Christine Kerr broke her old record in the 200-yard freestyle, setting a new mark of 1:48.60.
Following two days of events, the Big Green was sitting in sixth place and was poised to overtake Penn to move into fifth.
Saturday saw the highest finish of the weekend by a Dartmouth swimmer, as Sweeney took second in the 200-yard backstroke. She also set a new school record during her preliminary event swim of 1:58.84.
"It's not really that common to break school records at Ivies," Wilson said. "But with records being broken, you know that people are swimming well and scoring well, which all contributes to the team's standings."
With a strong Big Green showing on Saturday, including a third place finish by Alcon in the 100-yard freestyle and a fifth place finish by the 400-yard freestyle relay team, Dartmouth moved ahead of Penn on the last day of the meet to secure its fifth place position.
Throughout the meet, the Big Green focused on the technique and strategy that it had employed throughout the season.
"You can't ever control the competition," Wilson said. "Everyone is holding everybody else on the team accountable for what they do and how they do it. It is a huge team effort without the team, the individuals can't achieve what they do."
The Big Green men will travel to Princeton, N.J., next weekend for their Ivy League Championship meet.
