Williams Leads Following Day One at Women's Swimming & Diving Championships

Courtesy Williams Sports Information

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Defending conference champion Williams College is in charge following the end of day one at the 2011 NESCAC Women's Swimming & Diving Championships hosted by the Ephs at Muir-Samuelson Pool in Williamstown, Mass. Williams has 713 points, followed by Amherst in second with 571.5 points and Tufts in third with 492.

Connecticut College and Bates round out the top five with 399 and 308 points respectively. Middlebury is in sixth place with 265 points; Colby is seventh with 258 points; Hamilton is in eighth place with 257 points; Bowdoin is in ninth place with 229 points; Wesleyan is in 10th place with 219 points; and Trinity College is in 11th place with 187.5 points.

In the first championship race of the evening, the 200-yard freestyle relay, four schools entered the race following a morning performance within half a second of each other. With all teams setting a blistering pace it would be Williams which would emerge victorious at the end of the race, wining the event with a time of 1:34.57. The swim would also break the 17 year old pool record, held by Kenyon College, which had stood at 1:34.65. A close race for second place saw Connecticut College beat Amherst by just over half a second, finishing in 1:35.22.

A young final in the 50-yard breaststroke saw seven underclassmen challenging the defending champion, Amherst junior Rebecca Kelley. It would be Kelley’s title once again, as she charged out to the victory in a time of 29.93.

The 50-yard butterfly saw a stacked field, with three swimmers having broken the 22 year old pool record in preliminary heats. Defending champion Logan Todhunter, a junior from Williams, would post the fastest swim of the day in the prelims with a time of 25.24. Todhunter would then capture her third consecutive title in the event in the finals, finishing in a time of 25.40.

The anticipated showdown between Amherst junior Kendra Stern and Williams sophomore Caroline Wilson, two of the top swimmers in the conference, set up the 500-yard freestyle as quite a race. Wilson qualified ahead of Stern in the preliminary heats, however it would be Stern who cruised to victory in the finals. Stern, the three time defending NESCAC champion in the event, dropped nearly 10 seconds off of her preliminary time, winning in 4:48.58. Stern's time of bested her own NESCAC meet record, set at last year's championships, and broke a 17 year old pool record in the event.

Hamilton first year Maggie Rosenbaum broke the 17 year old pool record in the 50-yard backstroke preliminary heats, finishing in a time of 26.44. Rosenbaum would then earn her first career NESCAC title, winning in a time of 26.24, which also set a new NESCAC championship record.

In the 200-yard Individual Medley it was nearly an all Williams final, as the Ephs placed four swimmers in the championship heat. This trend would carry over to the final standings, as the Ephs would end up sweeping the event, taking first through third . Sophomore Katherine O'Leary would win the event in a time of 2:06.12.

Junior Carolyn Geller from Williams set the pool record in the 50-yard freestyle during the preliminary heats, posting a time of 23.66. In the finals the race came down to the wire, but it was Geller who took first place by the narrowest of margins, one one-hundredth of a second, over second placed Hamilton junior Megan Gibbons. Geller would finish in 23.84, Gibbons in 23.85.

The 1-meter diving was a very tight affair, with only four points separating the top three places. In the end, Amherst senior Meggie Meisinger won the event with a score of 413.40. In third place after this morning's preliminaries, Meisinger strung together an extremely impressive six dive list to capture first place.

The final event of the night was the 400-yard medley relay. The Williams squad finished first in a time 3:50.34. The time broke the 17 year old pool record, previously held by Hope College, of 3:53.23.

Action resumes on Saturday with preliminary heats at 10:00 a.m.