As it turned out, the Feb. 22-24 NESCAC Championships were not the last meet of the season for the women's swimming and diving team - at least not for senior diver Kendall Swett, sophomore diver Lindsay Gardel and freshman swimmer Megan Kono. Beginning today, the trio will compete at Div. III Nationals at the Miami University's Corwin M. Nixon Aquatic Center in Oxford, Ohio.
The divers will compete in both the 1-meter dive and the 3-meter dive, while Kono will be swimming in the 200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle, and 1,650-yard freestyle. Each swimmer qualifies for one event but gets to choose two others to participate in.
Similar to the NESCAC Championships format, Nationals feature preliminary and final stages. Only those who finish in the top eight in the preliminaries can advance to the championship final. Those who don't make the cut will compete in the consolation final.
Last year, Tufts finished 24th overall after Gardel came through with a breakout performance. Her eighth-place finish of 402.95 points in the 1-meter dive was enough to garner her All-American status. She also added an 11th-place in the 3-meter dive.
Swett's performance in the 1-meter dive seemed to have been an aberration considering her usual success in Nationals. She finished ninth in the event last season, just missing the mark to be named All-American, but she did redeem herself in the 3-meter dive with a fourth-place finish. This weekend will mark Swett's final Nationals performance in her illustrious career, and she learned from last year that this is not the weekend to be conservative in the water.
"You have to bounce back pretty quickly and just be aggressive and not hold anything back," Swett said. "Being as confident as possible is key."
Kono can easily be unofficially named the Jumbos' breakout swimmer of the year, performing well beyond her years in seemingly every meet and garnering a berth in Nationals.
"She's a freshman, so she's got nothing to lose and everything to gain," Swett said.
-by Sarina Mathai
