The women jumped in the pool first, beginning the day with the three-meter diving competition. Erica Serpico '12 started the Big Green off strong, taking first place in the event. Later in the meet, she also took the top spot in the one-meter competition, the icing on the cake of her strong regular diving season.
The Big Green's last home meet was highlighted by strong performances from the team's freshmen. Olivia Samson '16 bested her competition in the 1,000-yard freestyle, touching the wall five seconds ahead of her closest competitor. Kendese Nangle '16 took first for the Big Green in the 100-yard backstroke, setting a Karl Michael Pool record in the process. She later claimed another first place finish in the 50-yard freestyle.
Though the Big Green ultimately fell to the Columbia Lions, Dartmouth finished the meet on a high note with the final relay, with three Big Green women's teams scoring points in the top three spots. Sasha Alcon '15, Mary Van Metre '14, Siobhan Hengemuhle '15 and Charlotte Kamai '16 took first, finishing in 3:28.39. The Big Green was out-touched by Columbia, whose team finished in 3:27.71, but the Lions had to be exhibitioned since senior Katie Meili had already swum in four events.
The relay teams' strong finishes look very promising for their Ivies run, especially since the Lions wore fast suits while Dartmouth did not.
"We will have to wait and see what happens when we get our suits on and are comparing apples to apples," head coach Jim Wilson said.
On the men's side, Dartmouth began the swimming portion of the meet with a first-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. The Big Green continued to have considerable success, winning nine of the 16 events.
"[Columbia] showed why they were third at Ivies last year," Wilson said. "They have tremendous depth. We have very good talent and can get higher places than they can, but the key to winning Ivy League championships is depth, so we're trying to figure out how to get our second tier to do a little better."
With the Ivy League championships next on the Big Green's schedule, this weekend's loss is by no means a setback for the team.
"People were definitely tired, especially coming off these past two weekends," men's co-captain Zack Doherty '13 said. "Even though we didn't win today, no one is worried about how we are going to perform at Ivies. If anything, this makes us even more excited to swim fast in about a month."
Doherty is a member of The Dartmouth staff.
Highlights for the Big Green men included strong individual performances by Nejc Zupan '14, who took first place in the 100-yard breaststroke, the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard individual medley. He broke two Karl Michael Pool records in the process, in both the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke.
The Big Green divers also had a strong showing on the day, with Brett Gillis '16 and Ryan Shelley '15 taking first and second place in the one-meter dive.
"Now we just have to get them focused and ready to go [for Ivies]," diving coach Chris Hamilton said.
For the swimmers not competing at the Ivy championships in three and a half weeks, Sunday's meet marked their final competition for the season. Five men's swimmers ended their season Sunday, two of whom were seniors and concluded their Dartmouth swimming careers .
"Being there with Mike Lenkeit ['13] and Ben Feeser ['13] for their final meet was awesome," Doherty said. "The team voted them the swimmers of the meet, which was cool to be able to recognize them for their achievements and for the past four years."
The Big Green will spend the next few weeks preparing for the three-day Ivy League Championships. The women will compete from Feb. 28 to March 2 at Princeton University and the men will compete from March 7 to 9 at Brown University.
Doherty said that the Big Green swimmers must focus on their studies in the coming weeks, since Ivy championships will occur during the week of reading period.
