Nov. 15, 2007

Going into our first meet against Wheaton I knew we were going to post some good times but I had no idea the women would perform as well as they did.  Not only did they take one of the best DIII teams in the country down to the wire, only to be narrowly defeated, but three school records were broken!  We had just finished our fourth week of training and this was our first competition of the year, so I was not expecting one school record, let alone three!

The 400 Medley Relay team of Katherine Leonard, Cassie, O’Neill, Ellie Elgamal and Charlotte Richman led of the meet with a win and broke the school record by nearly two seconds with a time of 4:06.93.  Katherine lead off the relay in record time by posting a 1:02.54, besting the old 100 back record by 5 one-hundredths.  Freshmen Ellie Elgamal followed her first record breaking swim with another by winning the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:10.03, breaking the school record by over four seconds!  In addition, she was only four one-hundredths away from an NCAA provisional time.  Despite the fact that we didn’t come away with a win it was a very exciting and encouraging way to start off the season.

After falling short at Wheaton, the Women’s Team looked to get their first dual meet win of the season when they faced IIT and St. Mary’s College the following Friday.  Freshmen Charlotte Richman, Katherine Leonard and Ellie Elgamal led the way for the team by winning two events each as the Maroons defeated IIT 159-35 and St. Mary’s 130-96.  Ellie was at it again, breaking the school record, this time in the 100 butterfly, posting an NCAA provisional time of 58.34.

The women hoped to continue their record setting ways as we hosted our annual Maroon Invitational.  Eight other mid-west teams, including DIII powers Kalamazoo and Washington University, attended the meet, which proved to be much more competitive than advertised.  The Women were not expected by many to challenge either Kalamazoo or Wash U. for the top two spots but after two sessions of swimming the Maroons were in the lead…by one point.

This was probably the first time in the history of the program that the women were in a position to defeat such great swimming teams.  Based on the seedings going into the last session, the women were slated to lose to Wash U. by over 30 points.  But the girls didn’t get discouraged and the energy they had during the final session of swimming was amazing. With every single swim we had swimmers moving up places, getting best times and breaking more records than ever before.

The women ended up ahead of Wash U. by 18 points going into the last event, the 400 Free Relay, and were able to secure the team title in fashion by placing second in the event with a school record time of 3:45.94.  In all, the team broke four school records, one pool record, and posted numerous lifetime bests.  Oh, and they beat one of the best teams in the country.

The team looks to keep their momentum going and end the quarter with two more wins as they face Grinnell and Lake Forest at home Saturday, November 17.

Jason Weber
Head Swimming & Diving Coach