Women’s meet scored

I am assuming this was done using the aggregate 400 Free Relay that Calvin entered and not the 3:29.1 that they went at MIAAs? Those points would certainly slide Calvin’s total point figure up a wee bit.

Calvin’s divers will give them a shot at third, however, I suspect that Emory will score more than 300 points and be closer to challenging Denison for second than Calvin challenges Emory for third. This is because Emory and Denison are bringing a lot more swimmers and splashes to this meet than Calvin and I think this gives them more “scoring potential”, especially if they really hit their tapers, a real possiblity given the history of their programs and coaches.

Of course what I said about Denison and Emory can be applied with equal conviction, but more force given the larger numbers, about Kenyon.

I think Kenyon will score more than 550 points.

I want to say Erica Duer was 2nd and 4th on the boards last year as a freshman.

@facenorth wrote:

I want to say Erica Duer was 2nd and 4th on the boards last year as a freshman.

That’s right 2nd in the 1 meter and 4th in the 3 meter…so she should score points.

Calvin won’t beat Emory, that’s for sure. I can’t speak about Denison as much, but Emory will do much better than the psyche sheets say. Swimmers like Pasternak, Hostalet, Lawler, and Smith are entered with times that are nowhere near their best. They all essentially qualified one swim at midseason and haven’t rested since. The diving sure will help Calvin, but I can’t see a second taper serving them as well as the other three teams ahead of them, who certainly didn’t taper most of their team for conference.

Many Kenyon, Emory and Dennison swimmers have been waiting since November and December to swim fast in a number of events. Calvin and Amherst had to swim fast at conference championships to get their swimmers into the big dance at Houston. Swimmers like Weima and Sasser probably were not tapered and shaved at conference championships, but, in my opinion, there is not a lot of room for improvement in the times of the other Calvin and Amherst swimmers.

I agree with neswim that the Kenyon women will have some special swims and should improve on their present positions on the psyche sheet.

Dennison is a much stronger this year than last and could also improve on their seed times. However, I don’t see them challenging Kenyon.

The real battle will be between Emory and Calvin for third. I don’t see how Amherst can contend with these two.

If either Amherst or Middlebury place higher higher than Williams at nationals, this might be a first in NESCAC history.

@d3womensfan wrote:

I’m a fan of the women’s side and scored things based off the heat sheets… excluding diving this it how it shakes out.

Kenyon 536 538
Denison 333 267
Emory 286 295
Calvin 260 283[41 diving points]
Amherst 232 320
Middlebury 188 179
Washington 174 189
Williams 161 220
Wheaton 132 109
Hope 99 121
UWSP 99 59

Scenarios to watch…

Can Weima lead Calvin into the top 3?

The top 5 are solidly in the 200s, who will win the dash for 6th?

Hope, Stevens Point, et al look to be a chase to fill out the top 10.

thoughts…

After a week of reflection, I thought that those of us who follow the women’s side of swimming might comment on the past championships. I put in bold the actual scores beside the scored psyche sheet without diving.

My observations are:

Amherst and Williams showed the biggest improvement over seed positions. I think only Sasser from those two teams was not tapered for the NESCAC Championships three weeks earlier. What do Coaches Nichols and Kuster do to get their women ready for nationals?

What happened to Dennison?

If Emory had not DQ’ed the 200 medley, they would have edged Amherst for second overall.

Barer’s swims in the backstroke[relays and individual] and Menzel’s win in the 100 breast were the biggest positive Kenyon surprises for me. I had expected Ertel to be a bigger force in the individual events. However, she was a difference maker in the relays.

Ross’s two wins in the 2 fly events caught me off guard. I expected Emory’s Psaris to go under 2 minutes in the 200 fly and Ertel to win the 100 fly.

Coombs of SUNY is fast. She also had some very fast opening back legs of medley relays and her 100 free was a championship swim.

Orstein of W&J swam very fast. Two wins and a national record is not too shabby.

Five national records were set in the swimming events:
200 IM
400 IM
100 Back
200 Back
800 Free-Relay

I had expected a couple more.

The Future:
Let me go on record with a prediction for next year. There will be a new record set in the 800 Free Relay. Four teams broke the existing record this year. Multiple teams may break it next year. Amherst should be a couple of seconds faster, for sure. In the Amherst Student’s write up of Amherst’s runner-up performance, co-captain, Margaret Ramsey, commented that she is just as excited about this year’s record as she is to see her own record fall next year when she expects an even stronger Amherst team to show up at Nationals, with Meaghan Stern’s younger sister, Kendra, a phenomenal swimmer in the 200 Free joining the team in the fall. I wonder if Kendra Stern is a breast stroker. Amherst needs to find a replacement for Pettersen if they want to contend for a top 4 position next year.

Kenyon looks pretty strong for next year. They have reestablished their dominance over the other D-III teams on the women’s side.

Kendra Stern
50 FR – 23.70
100 FR – 51.83
200 FR – 1:51.50
500 FR – 5:14.80
100 BK – 1:01.81
200 BK – 2:15.70

It looks like the new Stern will also make Amherst’s 400 free relay very competitive next year. I guess she is not a breast stroker.