BY GENEVRA PITTMAN

In print | November 15, 2007

Saturday was filled with mixed emotions for the Garnet swim teams, as the women triumphed over Franklin and Marshall College with record-book performances, 114-91, while the men suffered from injury and close losses in numerous races to fall 129-76.

The win for the women marked the first time that Swarthmore had beaten the Diplomats in their pool in Coach Sue Davis’ tenure, and neither the significance of the win nor the energy boost that it gave the women has been lost on them.

“It was so much fun,” Anne Miller ‘10 said of the meet. “The high of winning the meet lasted all through Sunday.” According to both swimmers and Davis, the difference in the women’s meet came down not to physical ability but to desire. “I think the girls’ team wanted it really badly and we went in ready to win and ready to compete,” Miller said.

“The women knew that it was going to come down to which team wanted to win the meet,” Davis said. “And I guess it was Swarthmore.”

Miller led the way with a Swarthmore-record time in the 1000 yard freestyle, breaking her own record in 10:47.18. She was followed by Allison Bishop ‘11, who wasted no time in getting her own name in Swarthmore history, as her 11:03.92 was good enough for fifth place of all time. The Garnet got a big boost in the 50 freestyle, as the Swat women trio of Jennie Lewis ’08 (25.89), Claire Shelden ’10 (26.26) and Chelsea Brett ’11 (26.51) swept the top three places. Franny Zhang ’08 edged out F&M’s Laura Bassford by 0.29 seconds in the 200 IM with a time of 2:16.02, and Miller and Casey Osborn ‘10 continued their dominance in the butterfly with a 1-2 finish, recording times of 59.14 and 1:00.82, respectively. Julia Wrobel ’09 beat out Meghan Karanian of the Diplomats by 0.1 seconds for a 56.70 win in the 100 freestyle, and Miller earned her third victory of the meet in the 500 freestyle (5:18.68). Other significant finishes for the Swarthmore women were Allie Jordan ’09’s third-place in the 100 backstroke (1:04.17) and Stephanie Su ’09’s third-place in the 100 breaststroke (1:14.47). With the meet down to the last event, the 200 freestyle relay, the Swarthmore team of Wrobel, Brett, Shelden and Lewis overcame the cheering of stands full of F&M fans to clinch the win, finishing in 1:43.25. Lewis held off F&M’s surging Brittany McCabe with a 25.18 split, and the Garnet women maintained their perfect 3-0 record on the season.

While the men came into the meet with a similar intensity and effort, the cards were stacked against them. Distance leader Stephen Shymon ‘09 was out with a recent injury, and the Garnet had a big hole to fill after last year’s stellar last-second win that was catalyzed by its class of 2007. “The men actually had a very good meet but we had a couple guys that weren’t swimming as well as they had before,” Davis said.

“We were pumped,” Andrew Frampton ‘08 said of the team’s attitude going into the meet. But, “it was a bummer not having Shymon in there. We still had great swims but some of us were sick or not altogether there.”

Swarthmore still had impressive performances from Derrick Kao ’11, who placed second in the 1000 freestyle in 10:40.11 and third in the 500 freestyle in 5:08.66, Doug Gilchrist-Scott ’09, who won the 50 freestyle in 22.52 and finished second in the 100 backstroke in 56.13, Sterling Satterfield ’11, third in the 200 IM in 2:04.56 and third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.86, Brian Roth ’09, second in the 100 butterfly in 54.59, Michael Ahn ’10, who won the 100 freestyle in 50.02, Frampton, who finished second in the 500 freestyle in 5:08.66, third in the 200 freestyle and fourth in the 100 butterfly in 57.20 and Kyle Skolfield ’10, second in the 100 breaststroke in 1:02.69.

This weekend, both teams will be facing tough competition against squads from New York University.

“NYU’s going to be a tough meet mentally and probably physically,” Miller said, “but as long as we can go in with a positive attitude and have fun in our races it shouldn’t be that bad.”

Davis had the same sentiment as Miller. “The women have to have another meet like that had against F&M and not be pessimistic,” she said. “You never know what’s going to happen till it’s over.”

« RETURN TO SPORTS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »