The women's swimming and diving team heads into this weekend's Ivy League Championships looking to use momentum, purposeful preparation and a bit of good fortune to secure a top-four finish, which would be an all-time best for the team. The Championships will be held at Harvard University's Blodgett Pool Thursday through Saturday.
The Big Green is coming off one of its strongest seasons in recent memory, posting a 9-5 (3-4 Ivy) record and defeating Ivy League foes Brown University, Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania.The win over Penn, a 150-149 nail-biter, especially gave the team a big mental boost.
"To have three Ivy wins is huge for us,"co-captain Galen Barry '12 said. "Fifth place is our benchmark, and fourth is very attainable."
Dartmouth will face stiff competition from Penn and Yale University, and the team is taking nothing for granted, according to Barry.
"We're deep in our butterfly events and sprinting," Barry said. "To get two or three girls in the final eight would be huge. Every point matters."
Co-captain Kelsey Pinson '12 also pointed to relay events as an area in which the team hopes to set school records. Twins Christine Kerr '14 and Danielle Kerr '14, who have combined to set five school records in their two seasons at Dartmouth, said they feel pressure to improve upon last year's Ivy Championship performance.
"Having last year under my belt, I feel like it puts more pressure on me because I have a standard," Christine Kerr said.
The Big Green will send 16 swimmers and six divers to the event, according to Barry. Dartmouth finished sixth at last year's Championships.
Diver Erica Serpico '12 will also look to reclaim the one-meter title that she captured in 2010. In the week leading up to the event, the team has tapered, or lessened its intensive training, according to Barry.
"It's very much resting muscles and focusing on racing preparation, so doing a lot of starts, turn work fine-tuning specific things," Barry said.
The team incorporated more stretching and ceased lift workouts, according to Barry.
"We're definitely trying to hone in on making everything perfect in practice," Christine Kerr said.
As a result, the team now heads into the event with an increased level of energy and confidence, according to Danielle Kerr. The three-day championship is purposely structured to space out the events, Barry said.
Preliminary heats begin at 11 a.m., with swimmers returning for finals each night around 6 p.m. Each session runs roughly two and a half hours, leaving extra time for rest and preparation.
"It's very similar to our training style, where we'll have a morning practice, go back to the hotel and eat as a team," Barry said.
To help with the added pressure, the team will bring with it amenities reserved only for the Ivy Championship. Each swimmer and diver will wear special suits as well as personalized swim caps. The team will also have a professional masseuse available to swimmers and divers.
"We don't shave and taper for any other meet," Barry said.
Barry expects a significant drop in many of the swimmers' times due to the new equipment and event-specific preparation.
"For dual meets, you're normally training through them," she said. "Now, we're focusing on swimming our absolute fastest at this meet."
Both Barry and the Kerr twins said the first few races on Thursday will be a fairly good indicator of how Dartmouth will finish in the meet.
"You kind of know how it's going after the first day," Danielle Kerr said.
Christine Kerr agreed that the opening day's races will set the tone.
"Sometimes, if you're swimming a really short race and then a really long race, it might be different, but for the most part, you'll be able to tell whether you're on or off," Christine Kerr said.
Thursday's events include a majority of the sprint races, one of the Big Green's strong suits.
"In order to accomplish our goal of being top-four, everyone is really going to need to step up and swim well," Pinson said in an email to The Dartmouth. "It's really important that we swim fast in [preliminary events] in order to get into the top heats in finals."
