COURTESY PHOTO
Even with big performances on the women’s swimming and diving team, they came up short during their meet this past weekend. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth was the competition for this day, also the day they’d recognize their seniors for their commitment to the team. Nicole Bombardier (Duxbury MA), Alexa Gamache (Bedford NH), Megan Gresham (Waterbury Center VT) and Stephanie Labeck (Oakville CT) were all honored before the matches would begin.
The underclassmen gave big strides in trying to help the seniors grab the win on their day. Cammie Turell (Bowie MD) and freshman Ellie Wilson (Darnestown MD) would grab the first two finishing spots in the 200-freestyle, only three seconds apart from each other. Wilson’s finish was big enough for her to set a new season best; 2:15:60. Turell would then go to suffer two dramatic second-place finishes, coming up short in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle by less than .2 seconds.
Freshman Madelin Svetin (Topsham ME) took second place in all three of her events; 50-yard backstroke, 200-yard backstroke and 50-yard butterfly. Her last two events would be her most impressive as she, as well, set new season records, finishing times of 2:26:46 and 28:93 respectively. Casey Allaire (Mattapoisett MA) ran away with the diving events after getting a 214.11 on the 1-meter dive and 204.60 on the 3-meter. Senior Gresham took second place in the 100-yard butterfly and would also compete with Svetin, Turell and Sylvie Donnell (Warren NH) for the 200-yard freestyle. This dynamic team would go to crush their season best time for a relay team, finishing at 1:53:95.
Over the holiday break, the team went 2-1, grabbing wins from Maine Maritime and Western Connecticut State. Their loss coming from the University of St. Josephs Connecticut.
The team now has another week break at they prepare for the Little East Championships on February 9th. It’ll be held at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth campus, diving into the water at 12 p.m.