Lott Natatorium, the home of Camel Swimming. Photo by Hannah Plishtin.
On March 23-26, six members of the women’s team and two of the men’s team competed at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championship.
Following a spectacular 11-1 season, the women’s team took fourteenth place at the meet with 69 points, the highest place and the highest point total the swim team has ever received.
Sara Murphy ’11 made her third consecutive appearance at the championship and swam in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly, placing ninth and third with times of 55.72 and 2:01.35, respectively, earning an All-American for the latter.
“I’d had the best meet of my life at the NESCAC championships this year and really didn’t think that I would be able to improve upon my times at all. I was just hoping to be near my times so that I would have a good chance of making it into the top 16 places that swim in finals at night,” said Murphy. “Despite trying to keep my expectations realistic, I had set goals for myself for each of my individual events and I was happily surprised to achieve them all and then some.”
Murphy was far from the only girl to swim in individual events. Jessica Schanzer ’13 placed twenty-seventh in 200-yard backstroke and broke the school record with a time of 2:06.18. Julia Pielock ’13 swam the 50-yard freestyle and took thirty-second place with a time of 24.10. Erika Fernandes ’12 also swam in the 50-yard freestyle, earning twenty-fifth place with a time of 23.93, and seized twenty-fifth place in the 200-yard breast 2:23.01.
Three of the four relays broke school records. Fernandes, Schanzer, Murphy and Pielock swam the 200-yard freestyle relay capturing seventh place with a time of 1:35.01 and an All-American. Murphy, Schanzer, Caitlin Munns ’11 and Pielock swam the 400-yard freestyle, posting a time of 3:29.55. Rachel Bohn ’14, Katie Karlson ’13, Fernandes and Pielock swam the 200-yard medley relay, taking eighteenth place with a time of 1:46.73.
Schanzer, Karlson, Murphy and Munns swam in the 400-medley relay, posting a time of 1:46.73 and eleventh place.
The men’s team placed twenty-fifth with 33 points, the second highest place and number of points for the meet in the program’s history.
Tim Walsh ’12 set two school records in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke and took second and third place with times of 48.99 and 1:47.69, earning an All-American for both.
“Even after winning all of the backstroke events at NESCACs, Tim still went on to do even better at nationals,” said Murphy. “He has really made a name for himself on the national level.”
Ryan Dignan ’14 swam to twenty-eighth place in the 500-yard freestyle, posting a time of 4:42.98. He also competed in the 100-yard freestyle, taking thirty-second place with a time of 46.21, and placed twenty-seventh in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:41.45.
Altogether, the men and women’s team broke nine school records and had seven All-Americans.
“I am very proud of our swimmers for both their NESCAC performances and NCAA Championship performances,” said Head Coach Marc Benvenuti, named NESCAC Coach of the year for the third time in the last six years. “We had such a great meet at NESCAC that I thought it might be tough to do any better than that, but both the women and the men at NCAA beat their NESCAC performances handily. This is a team of racers and competitors. The bigger the stage, the better we did.”
This championship marks the end of the 2010-2011 season for Swimming and Diving.
“This has been our best season to date. The women have firmly established themselves as the best women’s swim team we have ever had here. On every level they are the new benchmark for Connecticut College Swimming,” said Benvenuti. “The men were supposed to be in one of those ‘rebuilding years’ after graduating four All-Americans in 2010, but they really stepped up and were even more competitive than last year’s team.”
Although the next season seems far off, with so many strong returning swimmers, it already looks as though the Camels will repeat and improve their performance next year. •
