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BY BEN RAPHEL

In print | January 31, 2008

Fresh off their training trip to Puerto Rico, the Swarthmore men’s and women’s swimming teams scored significant victories on Saturday against Cabrini College, in their first home meet of the semester. The men (3-4, 2-1 CC) rolled to a 154-41 victory over the non-conference opponent Cavaliers, while the women (5-2, 3-0 CC) won by the score of 143-105.

Casey Osborne ’10 said that the team was anxious to compete again after four weeks away from Swarthmore and an exhilarating trip to Puerto Rico. “Training trip always signifies a turning point in the season where everyone begins to shift their sights towards the Centennial Conference Championships,” Osborne said, adding that the team returned home “sore and sunburned, but with a renewed desire to make the hard work pay off in every race leading up to our championship.”

Both Garnet teams got off to a quick start, as the men and women each won their 200-yard medley relays. In the next contested event, Chelsea Brett ‘11 won the women’s 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:03.01. Brett said that the team’s impressive performance on Saturday bodes well for a strong showing in future competitions. “We’ve been working really hard and I think that it is going to pay off at the conference meet and at our meet this Saturday against Gettysburg,” Brett said.

Following Brett’s victory was Michael Ahn ‘10, who clocked in with a time of 1:50.81 to win the men’s 200-yard freestyle. This dominance continued throughout the day, and the Garnet lost only four total contested events overall. All-American sophomore Anne Miller ‘10 added two decisive wins to the women’s record.

Not only was Swarthmore faster than Cabrini, but they outnumbered the Cavaliers as well. A few events, such as the 1000-yard freestyle, did not feature any Cabrini swimmers. After clinching victories on both the men’s and women’s sides, the Garnet did not even count their results toward the final score for six of the later events.

“For the Cabrini meet, the team went in expecting to do well, but I was really impressed how hard everyone swam when they had no competition,” Doug Gilchrist-Scott ’09 said.

“People still went out and raced, and used [the meet] as good practice.”

In addition to the 200-yard freestyle victory, Ahn won the 200-yard IM relay, which was run as an exhibition race, with a time of 1:50.81. Also getting two wins for the men was Gilchrist-Scott, who won both the 100-yard butterfly (56.69) and the 100-yard freestyle (50.01). Anne Miller ‘10 doubled up for victories on the women’s side, as she won both the 200-yard butterfly (2:12.98) and the 500-yard freestyle (5:30.33).

The women’s team faced Bryn Mawr at home yesterday, in a Centennial Conference competition. This Saturday at 2 p.m., both Garnet swim teams will have their last home meets of the season at Ware Pool, when they face off against Gettysburg.

The Bullets are currently undefeated in the conference on both the men’s and women’s sides, so this will be a very important meet in regards to conference standings.

“They match up with us really well, so it should be a hard-fought meet and extremely close,” Gilchrist-Scott said, in regards to Gettysburg. “We beat them last year, so there’s no reason we can’t do it again, we just have to step it up.”

Osborne said that the team’s current momentum would help carry them through another tough contest this weekend. “We hope that this win against Cabrini will springboard us to another great meet against Gettysburg this weekend, which is sure to be a dogfight,” she said.

Miller said that the team is particularly motivated to win this Saturday because it is the seniors’ final at-home competition. “This Saturday against Gettysburg is going to be a big test of our team’s strength and spirit …I think we can [win] because this team has managed to come together for difficult meets before and we will all want to give the seniors a great last home meet,” Miller said.

Swarthmore will use these meets to help prepare for the all-important conference championships, which will be held at Franklin & Marshall College in three weeks. According to Anne Miller ’10, the team is already modifying its training schedule in preparation for the culminating event. “The team is getting ready to start tapering for conferences. We are looking good and I think everyone will perform well,” Miller said.

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