For 21 of the Jumbos swimmers, the non-scored Middlebury Invitational represented a final chance to reach the personal records they have been working towards all semester.
For the NESCAC Championship squad, the meet was a chance to test itself against stronger competition, as the Jumbos were joined by perennial NESCAC and Div. III powerhouses Williams and Middlebury as well as Div. I University of Vermont and Dartmouth College.
The Tufts swimmers and divers failed to win an event, but several placed reasonably well against the stacked field. The 24-person roster heading to NESCACs trained hard through this past week and swam multiple events, including some unfamiliar ones, in order to better prepare for the league championships.
"[The swimmers going to NESCACs] swam off-events, and swam many, many events," coach Nancy Bigelow said.
Senior tri-captain Kristen Hyland placed fourth in the mixed 1000-yard freestyle in 11:34.12. Hyland also swam to a 28th-place finish in the 200-yard IM. Senior tri-captain Meghan Wallach finished 12th in that race with a time of 2:21.68, and came in 31st in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 27.10 behind ninth-place junior Chloe Young-Hyman (25.80).
Young-Hyman competed in four other events, including the 200-yard medley relay, two separate 50-yard time trials and the 200-yard freestyle relay. The 200-yard medley relay team of Caswell, Young-Hyman, Wallach and senior Katie Mims, swam a time of 1:59.25, six seconds slower than their season's best.
The slower time was due to fatigue and unfamiliarity, as each swimmer swam a different leg than she was accustomed to. This was true across the board, as personal bests for the NESCAC swimmers were hard to come by.
However, Bigelow was not overly concerned with the showing.
"If any of the faster kids swam well [over the] weekend, it would have been an added bonus," the coach said.
Although all of the Jumbos' fastest swimmers competed, the meet served as the championship meet for swimmers not going to NESCACs, and almost all these swimmers swam new personal bests. Sophomore Carolyn Chimielewski stood out, swimming a personal record 19:09.82 in the 1650-yard freestyle, a time that would have placed her 22nd at last year's NESCAC Championships.
Sophomore Allison Manchester broke 27 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle for the first time, clocking in at 26.91. Classmate Kim Brown swam a career-best 1:00.07 in the 100-yard freestyle. Freshman Stefanie Travers swam a personal record of 1:04.84 in the 100-yard backstroke, despite not yet tapering, a process which entails drastically reducing training leading up to a competition.
"The [non-NESCAC swimmers] really set the tone," said Bigelow. "They helped the confidence level of the entire team."
The Jumbos now have two weeks to prepare for the NESCAC Championships, which take place on Feb. 17-19 at Bowdoin. While the season is over for almost half the team, the others begin tapering this week and eagerly await the upcoming competition.
