Jumbos take eighth at NESCACs

Tufts traveled to Bowdoin over the weekend to compete in the NESCAC Championships, where it amassed a total of 700.5 team points to rank eighth out of 11 teams.

Junior Jess Lee was proud of the effort the team put in at Bowdoin.

"A three-day meet at the end of a season is [tough],” Lee said. “At that point, it comes down to how much heart you have and how much support you have from everyone else who’s there."

The Jumbos started off strong on Friday, with first-year Grace Goetcheus setting two program records: in the 200 individual medley (2:06.75) and the 100 backstroke component of the 400 medley relay (57.43). In the latter event, the team -- consisting of Goetcheus, sophomore Colleen Doolan and senior tri-captains Amanda Gottschalk and Sophia Lin -- demolished a program record with a blistering time of 3:53.79,earning the team 44 points.  

The 200-yard freestyle relay -- comprised of Lin, Lee, Gottschalk and Doolan -- placed eighth at 1:37.14, adding another 44 points to the Jumbos' tally. In the 200-yard individual medley, Gottschalk swam a speedy 2:07.52, earning 23 team points.

First-year Katherine Brown swam in the final of the 50 breaststroke, finishing ninth with a time of 30.68. Senior tri-captain Sarah Elghor came in 14th in the same event with a time of 31.01, with junior Meghan Casey right behind her for 15th (31.12). In the final for the 50 butterfly, Lee flew in with a time of 26.3, earning her 13th place, good for 14 points.

Despite a hand injury, senior diver Kylie Reiman finished seventh overall in the 1-meter dive with a score of 394.15, adding 23 points to the team total.  

On Saturday, Gottschalk broke Tufts’ 400 individual medley record with a breakneck time of 4:28.66. She finished fifth overall and earned the Jumbos 25 points. Doolan and Brown also took time off of their events, with Doolan losing 0.34 seconds from her 100 butterfly, earning 11th place and 16 points, and Brown taking 0.78 off of her 100 breaststroke, earning 11th place and 16 points as well.

Tufts’ 800 freestyle relay team -- comprised of Goetcheus, Doolan, first-year Hannah Truslow and sophomore Alex Good -- placed seventh with a time of 7:43.17, adding 46 points to the scoreboard for the Jumbos. In the 200 medley relay, Goetcheus, Gottschalk, Lee and Lin finished seventh overall at 1:45.87, tallying another 46 points.

On Sunday morning, Doolan and Gottschalk wrapped up impressive weekends with strong finishes in the finals. Doolan came in third in the championship final of the 200-yard butterfly (2:03.86), earning 27 points for the Jumbos. Gottschalk also finished third in the final of the 200 breaststroke (2:19.24) and earned 27 points for the team. Both swimmers improved on their event timings in the finals as compared to the preliminaries, with Doolan losing 1.03 and Gottschalk dropping 1.08.  

Four other Jumbo swimmers competed in the 200 breaststroke final. Junior Anna Kimura placed 11th with a time of 2:23.62, while Casey recorded a time of 2:26.25 to finish 17th. Elghor came in at 2:28.80 and Brown finished at 2:30.12.  

 Goetcheus competed in the finals of the 200 backstroke, finishing 10th overall with a time of 2:05.11 and tallying 17 more points for Tufts.  

Other Jumbos came close in the freestyle competitions. Lin finished the 100 freestyle in 53.63, while sophomores Christiana Hug and Ailish Dougherty competed in the 1,650 freestyle and clocked times of 18:36.48 and 18:42.59, respectively.  

To finish off a successful weekend for the Jumbos, the 400 freestyle relay team took ninth place with a time of 3:34.85. The relay team -- manned by Lin, Doolan, Lee and sophomore Sydney Nasson -- earned 42 points.  

In the diving meet, Reiman scored 374.10 points in the championship finals of the 3-meter diving event, earning 22 points for the Jumbos.

Although the Jumbos finished the championship weekend eighth out of 11 teams, Lee explained some of the challenges within the conference.

“The NESCAC is getting really fast," Lee said. "We’re the top Div. III conference in the nation. It’s really hard to understand how well we did when you look at how we placed. On paper it doesn’t look that great, but we were breaking our program records.”

The Jumbos had a successful season with a winning dual meet record, something they have focused on since the beginning. Good thinks the key to their relatively successful season lies in their team chemistry.

“We knew we wanted to have a winning record this year, so we made it our goal and accomplished it," Good told the Daily in an email.  “I can guarantee you that there is not another team in the NESCAC that is as close as ours. We make each other stronger."