Every year, the women's swimming and diving team embarks on a training trip to Puerto Rico, where they spend the bulk of 10 days pushing themselves to the ultimate physical and mental limit. Still, their return to Massachusetts was no day at the beach for the Jumbos, who were confronted with last year's national No. 5 this weekend -- the Williams Ephs.
The Jumbos traveled to Williamstown Saturday for a tri-meet against the host Ephs and fellow NESCAC foe Wesleyan. While the Jumbos fell to the Ephs, 207-93, they managed to rebound, beating Wesleyan by a similar margin in a 205-92 decision.
"It's always good for us to swim against Williams," senior tri-captain Katie Swett said. "They're really a Division I program competing in a Division III conference. Going in, we knew that it would be incredible competition, but they always push us and show us a different degree of swimming."
Junior diver Lindsay Gardel was the only individual winner for Tufts on the day, but her victories in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives were enough to propel the Jumbos to the win over Wesleyan. Gardel took first in the 1-meter with a score of 255.5, which was her second Nationals-qualifying score of the season. Classmate Kelsey Bell brought home a Tufts sweep of the diving events, placing second to Gardel in both the 1-meter and the 3-meter with scores of 224.7 and 243.90, respectively.
"Our divers are amazing," senior tri-captain Kayla Burke said. "If Lindsay can win events, then that puts us ahead. We consistently look to her to do well and it just helps us out so much. The divers can only do two events, but we as swimmers sometimes wish they could do more."
Although the Jumbos managed numerous second-place finishes in the tri-meet, the sheer force of Williams repelled any upset Tufts might have had in mind. The Ephs won 10 out of 12 swimming events, kicking off the meet with a five-second victory in the 200-yard medley relay to set a tone of domination throughout the afternoon.
"Williams is clearly really fast, but it's been hard to get really good competition lately," Burke said. "It's really exciting because we'll get to see them at NESCACs soon. When you're up on the block against the same person you were in the dual meet, you know that you just want to get as close to them as possible, and that helps you race."
Tufts freshmen Kelly Moriarty, Paulina Ziolek, and Valerie Eacret teamed up with sophomore Maureen O'Neill to finish second in the 200-yard medley relay, just 22 hundredths of a second ahead of the Williams B team.
Ziolek also earned second in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:12.53, while O'Neill finished runner-up in the 50-yard freestyle. Eacret placed second in the 100-yard butterfly, as did freshman Annie Doisneau in the 200-yard butterfly. Sophomore Megan Kono rounded out the top finishers for Tufts with a second-place finish in the 1,650 freestyle.
"This meet was a good indication of where we will be at NESCACs," Swett said. "It's good to keep ourselves in check, especially since we had some easy dual meets earlier in the season. We're not the top dog like we have been at other times, so it's really a good reality check for us."
The tri-meet for the Jumbos was the first since the Dec. 5-6 MIT Invitational, as Tufts took the long recess for exams, break and then the ensuing training trip. Despite the double-practice days and hours of dry land workouts, the Tufts swimmers insist that the ends more than justify the means.
"It was an intense trip, but it brought us closer together as a team," Swett said. "We literally reached our ultimate physical peak, but afterwards it makes every race seem not that bad. A 500 freestyle is nothing compared to 85,000 meters. It gives us the mental edge we need to succeed. We come back stronger and physically at our optimum."
Taking the weekend split in stride, the team is now looking ahead to another showdown with MIT in the form of a dual meet this Saturday.
Tufts defeated the Engineers at the MIT Invitational in early December, but this dual meet could prove to be a different story. While the Jumbos placed up to 10 swimmers per event at the Invitational, a dual meet essentially pits the top three swimmers from each team up against each other, creating a more intense atmosphere. But if the results of the training trip are any indication, Tufts is ready for the challenge.
"MIT is a great rival for us," Swett said. "It's good to have a meet like that after one where we kind of knew the results even going into it. Now, after the training trip, we've become that much closer as a team. No one could get through that trip alone; it takes everyone to do it. So when we get on those blocks at meets, we're swimming for people who went through the same thing as each of us."
