Women's swimming pounds BC

The women's swimming and diving team was tired. Not only had the Tigers undertaken a grueling training regimen, but they were also dealing with the terrible loss of a teammate, Alan Ebersole '07, who passed away on the team's training trip. But before their first meet of the season, women's head coach Susan Teeter did not tell them to take it easy.

On the contrary, she told them they needed to prove that they're ready to win the Ivy League for the sixth year in a row because the eyes of their competitors would be on them. The women did not let her down as they destroyed Boston College, 225-73, at DeNunzio Pool Saturday morning taking first place in all but two events.

"We stepped up considering how tired we are," junior Chrissy Macaulay said. "We really came together."

The Tigers captured the first event, the 200-yard medley relay, and never looked back from there. Although the team was not expecting a tough challenge from Boston College, the first meet of the season was important for other reasons.

"[The first meet is] more about coming together for the first time as a team, getting used to the ritual and teaching the freshmen," Macaulay said.

The freshmen may not have much to learn, judging by their showing in their first official meet. Freshmen Catherine Wolpe and Meredith Thompson led the charge early in the meet, taking the top two places in the 500-yd. freestyle, an event in which the Tigers swept the top four spots. Wolpe and Thompson were just two of the numerous freshmen that made their mark against the Eagles.

"We have a very strong freshman class," Thompson said, "Lisa Hamming and Brett Shiflett especially had strong swims against BC."

Hamming dominated the 400-yd. individual medley in 4:27.03 and the 100-yd. freestyle in 53.42. Shiflett won the 200-yd. butterfly (2:08.13) and placed second in the 100-yd. butterfly. Junior Sarah Schaffer also took two events: the 100-yd. breaststroke (1:06.88) and the 200-yd. backstroke (2:07.34).

"There were a lot of nice little surprises — very fast swims," Macaulay said.

In addition to Schaffer and Hamming, Macaulay emphasized that there were many excellent, though less recognized, relay splits.

Freshman Charlotte Jones and sophomore Raegan Reber won the one-meter and three-meter diving contests, respectively, cementing Princeton's all-around dominance.

"We're where we need to be, but we're a team that's always pushing ourselves," Macaulay said. "We want to be two steps ahead of where we should be."

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They'll head back to the pool for more training, with their season goals and their quest to win the Ivy League title in mind.

"Our goal is to take [Ivy title] number six," Macaulay said. "It's going to be one of the hardest years to do that. There's a hungry Harvard team, but we're not going to give in."

While many teams' ultimate goal is simply to win the Ivy League, this ambitious team has more in mind for the season.

"[Our other goals are to] go undefeated in dual meets and send some individuals to NCAAs," Macaulay said.