The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams competed in a close meet on Saturday at the University of Connecticut, both contests resting on the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. While the women secured a nail-biting 154-146 victory, the men were narrowly edged out by UConn 152.5-147.5.
The women’s team needed to take first place in the final race in order to win the meet, trailing by a lone point. The energy around the pool, said co-captain Christine Kerr ’14, was electric.
“Everyone was going absolutely crazy because everyone knew that this race really mattered,” she said. “Everyone was just roaring and cheering and getting super excited. It gave you that surge of adrenaline before you jumped off the block and made you swim that much faster.”
Kerr led Dartmouth’s B relay team, taking third in the 400-yard freestyle relay by swimming a 3:32.98, just .49 seconds behind UConn’s A relay team. Dartmouth’s A team, comprised of Amy Sun ’17, Mary Van Metre ’14, Sasha Alcon ’15 and anchor Charlotte Kamai ’16, dominated the pool, swimming a 3:30.70.
Both Dartmouth relay teams were ahead of UConn until the last 50 yards when the Huskies’ A relay snuck ahead, Kerr said.
The men had a similar situation when the scores of the entire meet converged on the final relay, but despite swimming the fastest relay this year, co-captain Andrew North ’14 said, the team came up short.
“I was really happy with my split,” he said, “but [UConn’s anchor] swam a really fast split, too.”
North, who turned the fastest Dartmouth split at 45.66, swam in the third position for the Big Green, joined by Ian Woon ’15, Aaron Athanas ’16 and Daniel Whitcomb ’16. UConn’s anchor, junior Felix Samuels, split at 45.13, making up almost the entirety of the overall time difference between the two teams. Together, Dartmouth swam 3:04.41, just .51 seconds behind the Huskies.
“I still felt that the times were good for this time of year,” North said. “Our 400 relay was much faster than it has been earlier this season, which is pretty awesome at this point in the year because we’re still lifting pretty hard. It was nice to see everyone step up when they needed to.”
Swimmers knew the meet would be close. UConn’s men’s and women’s teams had split with the University of Pennsylvania earlier in the season, which had beat the Big Green men and women handily earlier this month.
“We needed every point that we won,” Kerr said. “Going into it, they looked better than us on paper, but some of our swimmers turned out awesome times, and it worked out.”
Both teams had key victories earlier in the meet that allowed them to go head-to-head with the Huskies during the relay. The teams started with a pair of firsts in the 200-yard medley relay, which, Kerr said, helped set the tone.
“The opening relay is always a toss-up,” she said. “Normally, when we win, it’s a really good prediction of how we’ll do in the rest of the meet. It put us in a good mindset.”
Kerr also pointed to the victory of Olivia Samson ’16 in the 200-yard IM as a turning point in the meet. Then, she said, the team realized it could win. Samson swam a 2:10.18 in the 200-yard IM, bringing home a crucial victory for the Big Green.
“I was surprised,” Samson said, “but I knew that how the points were at that point in the meet that I had to step up and give it my all.”
The men nabbed nine first-place finishes overall, with standout performances from consistent swimmers Nejc Zupan ’14, David Harmon ’17, James Verhagen ’16 and Jun Oh ’16. Oh won the 1,000-yard freestyle by 10.78 and tied for first in the 500-yard freestyle.
“If you had told me going into that last relay that we would swim a 3:04 and not win, I wouldn’t have believed you,” North said.
Both teams travel to Columbia University next weekend to compete in the last dual meet of the season before the Ivy League Championships at the end of February.
