Returning to Ivy League competition, the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams struggled against the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University in New Haven, Conn. last weekend despite individual successes.
The teams’ performances were hindered by a rigorous training schedule and philosophy designed to pay off later in the season, co-captain Andrew North ’14 said. The team then entered the competition sore from dry-land training.
“We just wanted to go out and train for the end of the year,” North said. “Overall, we had some good touches, though a lot of times we also got out-touched.”
Both Yale and Penn beat the Big Green women by more than double, 223-77 and 210-90, respectively.
“It was pretty bad,” co-captain Christine Kerr ’14 said. “We were slow in the back half, being out-touched. Still, we were happy with our attitude.”
Kerr, who placed fourth in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:54.03, also cited the differences in training schedules as a cause of the huge point disparity. Penn, fresh off its training trip, was in exceptional shape for the meet, while the Yale team has been bolstering physical fitness training in preparation for its meet against Harvard University and Princeton University in two weeks. Dartmouth, still engaging in its toughest training, is waiting to taper until closer to the Ivy League Championships at the end of February, she said.
“At the end of the day, our coach would rather accumulate all the hard training now,” Kerr said. “Our coach isn’t worried about the loss because when we swim at the end of the year, we are always able to come back and perform better.”
Despite the focus in training on future payoffs, a few women had high finishes for the Big Green. Kendese Nangle ’16 took second in the 100-yard backstroke, fourth in the 50-yard freestyle and sixth in the 200-yard backstroke. Charlotte Kama’i ’16 stole second place in the 100-yard freestyle by .42 seconds, out-touching Penn’s Irene Katopodis, and helped repeat that narrow triumph as the anchor of the 400-yard freestyle relay team that overtook Penn by just .05 seconds for second place along with Siobhan Hengemuhle ’15, Mary Van Metre ’14 and Amy Sun ’17.
The Big Green men swam a closer meet with both Penn and Yale, who overtook the Big Green 192-108 and 196-104 points, respectively.
“The two factors in swimming are essentially how prepared you are physically and your technique,” North said. “Your technique also depends on your strength and conditioning. There’s really only so much you can do when you’re that tired. What you can do is keep a positive attitude.”
Despite the team loss, three Dartmouth swimmers took home individual victories at the meet. Diver Brett Gillis ’16 finished 34.95 points ahead of the second-place competitor on the three-meter board. James Verhagen ’16 took home a victory of his own in the 100-yard backstroke and swam the fastest split in the opening leg of the 200-yard medley team relay.
“James is a really solid backstroker,” co-captain Nejc Zupan ’14 said. “I won’t be surprised if he goes to the NCAA tournament this year.”
Zupan gave a lights-out performance in New Haven. Leaving behind two new pool records, Zupan snatched three first-place wins in his three individual events. He was also a part of the 200-yard medley relay team that took third with Verhagen, North and Daniel Whitcomb ’16.
Zupan, who is currently ranked first in the Ivy League in both the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke, has qualified for the NCAA tournament with the B standard in both events and said he hopes to make the A standard before the end of the season, as he did in the 200-yard breaststroke last year.
The two teams part ways this week when the men take time off from competition to focus on training and the women buckle down for two back-to-back meets — one at home against the University of New Hampshire and another on the road at the University of Vermont.
“It’s going to be tough to have two meets in a row,” Kerr said. “We beat both of those teams last year, so hopefully that can give us a little more confidence.”
