Tufts finishes seventh in NESCACs

For the second year in a row, the women's swimming and diving team finished seventh out of the conference's 11 teams at the NESCAC Championships. The Jumbos compiled 795 team points at the three-day event, which was held at Wesleyan University from Feb. 13-15. Williams College won the competition with 2,103.5 points, followed by Bates (1,345) and Middlebury (1,203) in the top three.

"Overall, I think the team as a whole really stepped up to the challenge this weekend," sophomore Amanda Gottschalk said. "I was so impressed by our competitive drive and team unity throughout the weekend. We scored around 50 points more this year than at last year's conference meet and many more girls this year qualified to swim at finals at night, which is where you can score points."

Tufts ended the meet on a high note Sunday as first-year Anna Kimura broke the school record in the 200 breaststroke. Her mark of 2:21.94 eclipsed the previous record of 2:22.05 established by Jenny Hu last year. Kimura finished sixth in the conference final and her time made the NCAA B cut -- one of four Tufts times that did. Her performance -- the only Tufts' performance to claim a school record -- followed a strong 2:22.22 B mark during the preliminaries.

"I am very happy with the results of this weekend," Kimura said. "Throughout my swimming career, I never expected to swim the time that I did in the 200 breaststroke. So when I looked up at the scoreboard, it was hard to believe that was really me. The team also did a phenomenal job this weekend and I know I would not have swum as fast if not for them."

Gottschalk made the NCAA B cuts in the 400 individual medley (IM) during Saturday's preliminaries with a 4:34.23 touch, more than two seconds faster than the 4:36.69 B qualifying mark. She finished seventh in the final with a 4:35.03 time. Three Jumbos scored in the top 16 for the 400 IM overall.

"I am very honored to have accomplished that,"Gottschalk said of her qualifying time.

The Jumbos notched a pair of fifth place finishes on Saturday as well. Senior tri-captain Kathryn Coniglio earned an individual fifth in the 200 freestyle, which she swam in 1:53.60, and also contributed to a team fifth place finish in the 800 freestyle relay. Coniglio, fellow senior tri-captains Amanda Wachenfeld and Scarlett Hao and junior Sarah Mahoney combined for a 7:49.58 time in the final event of the day.Tufts finished the day in seventh with 575 team points.

The Jumbos got off to a strong start the day before, earning five top 10 finishes on Friday. Tufts started well with a sixth place finish in the 200 freestyle relay -- the first event of the meet -- with a 1:37.35 time.Coniglio, in addition to swimming the anchor leg of the 200 relay, also won the consolation final in the individual 50 freestyle with a 24.42 time. She was ninth in the final after swimming a time of 24.40 in the preliminaries for 10th place.

"Kathryn was just a rock all weekend and really stepped up and showed our freshman how it should be done," coach Nancy Bigelow said. "I was pleased with the performances of our seniors, who have been great leaders all year, and our freshmen shook off some first day jitters and did a great job as well."

One of those first-year standouts was Jess Lee, who, in addition to swimming in the sixth place 200 freestyle relay, won the consolation final in the 50 butterfly. She touched in 26.32 for ninth in the final, an improvement on her 26.52 12th place finish in the preliminaries.

Sophomore diver Kylie Reiman shined on day one as well, improving upon her 384.55 preliminary one-meter score with a 398 score that placed fourth in the event and made NCAA B cuts. Her finish was even more impressive given that she had missed the previous three weeks due to a sprained foot.

"I feel really great about how I did at NESCACs," said Reiman. "I didn't even know for certain if I would be able to compete until about a few days before the meet. I just trusted in my previous training and muscle memory and went in trying to do my best and it paid off."

Reiman will next be competing at the NCAA Zone Diving Qualifier at Springfield College from Feb. 27-28.

"Kylie really had an outstanding weekend," Coniglio added. "She had the daunting task of being our team’s only diver, but she had some really impressive finishes that contributed much-needed points to our team."

Tufts closed out the first day on a high note with a strong effort in the 400 medley relay, finishing seventh in 3:59.30.

The Jumbos top-eight finishes in all five relays at NESCACs were a testament to their outstanding teamwork and collaborative attitude.

"Overall, I thought we swam our hearts out," Coniglio said. "I thought the team swam really well. From the beginning of the season, this particular 2014-15 team has proven themselves to be a really positive and supportive group, and this positive, supportive team chemistry was a really important factor this weekend. None of the other NESCAC teams are as loud as we are when we cheer for each other."