Contributed by Robert Reiser
2019 NESCAC Conference Championships – Women’s Preview
- February 14th-17th, 2019
- Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut
- Teams: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams
- Live Results
The NESCAC, a conference that Swimulator currently projects to have 4 scoring women’s teams at NCAA Division III Nationals, begins its championship season Thursday with the women’s meet. Here are a few items to keep an eye on throughout the meet:
1. Day 0? Day 1?
For the first time ever the NESCAC will have their 800 relays on Day 1 . . . or is it Day 0? . . . let’s just call it Thursday, expanding the meet from its usual three-day format. It’s a big change for a league that starts a month later than the rest of DIII, ostensibly to focus on academics. That late start also means that most of the teams don’t taper at midseason so there’s an additional element of not knowing what to expect from certain swimmers. While the new format should lead to additional NCAA cuts in the 800 relay it could also lead to some of the faster cuts on the B relays or even the bench.
2. Splash and dash, pick a stroke
The NESCAC swims 50s of all 4 strokes at the conference championship meet, so unlike most collegiate championships that first full day has a lot of swims. Pay particular attention to the 50 fly where Williams’ Maia Hare has the fastest time this year but is followed closely by teammate Breanna Lee, Bowdoin’s Mary Laurita, Bates’ Janika Ho, and Tufts’ Sasha Fong.
3. Depth Reigns Supreme
The league scores B relays and to 24 places and allows for 24 swimmers per team (with divers counting as a whole swimmer) so depth is key for success. Despite graduating NCAA swimmer of the year Emma Waddell Williams has the deepest team in the league – 8 of the top 14 seeds in the 200IM, 3 of the top 5 in the 500 free (more on that below) for example – and they should run away with this meet. However, the rest of the teams are far more closely bunched. While Amherst was 2nd last year behind freestyler Natalie Rumpelt, breaststroker Nina Fitzgerald, and IMer Bridgitte Kowng, 3rd through 6th places were separated by only 130 points.
Last year’s 4th place finisher Tufts brought in a strong freshman class as well as Kenyon transfer Amy Socha and have already swum relays under last year’s NCAA cuts. They could make a move for second behind Sasha Fong (top seed in the 100 fly), Lily Kurtz (first in the 100BR) and a ton of depth, but they have often had a hard time replicating their midseason results at conference. Last year, for example, the team’s best time in 12 of the 13 NCAA Championship events came at mid-season meets.
Look for Bowdoin – who did not swim well last year – to rebound behind their top seeds Sterling Dixon (top in the 200IM), Marshall Lowery (top in 100BK) and Mary Laurita (second in 100 fly); a strong distance crew; and arguably the strongest diving squad in the league. Connecticut College lost some talent due to transfers but could surprise the league with strong relays behind sprinters Maddie Ford, Olivia Haskell, and the fast improving Ammon Vaughan, while Bates should be able to leverage the versatile Janika Ho, top butterflier Caroline Apathy, and breaststroker Emily Daigle into an NCAA invitation relay. In short, third through sixth is a tossup that should result in some great battles.
4. Can Williams be beaten in the 500?
Much like the men’s team, the Williams women return a dominant distance crew with 2018 NCAA 500 and 1,650 champion Laura Westphal, 400 IM champion Molly Craig, and NCAA scorers Alison McNamara and Gwyneth Maloy. Last year Casey Delano joined Westphal, McNamara, and Craig to go 1-4 in the 500 and they will look to build on that finish this year with the addition of freshman Abby Methany. Tufts’ Sook-hee Evand and Amy Socha as well as Amherst’s Natalie Rumpelt are the top contenders to try and break into the Williams stronghold but they have their work cut out for them.
5. Wesleyan relays
Last year, Wesleyan touched the wall second with what appeared to be a national qualifying 400 free relay only to be DQed after a swimmer left early. They time trialed at the last chance meet, qualified for NCAA’s and finished 9th – a huge improvement for the team. While they graduated a few point scorers and are suffering from the injury bug, with their home pool advantage they could push the top teams and earn a return berth at Nationals, a huge boost to a program still that lacks the depth of the top teams in the league.
2018 Scores:
- Williams College 1971
- Amherst College 1615
- Connecticut College 1060.5
- Tufts University 1023.5
- Bowdoin College 998.5
- Bates College 943
- Middlebury College 826
- Wesleyan University 725
- Trinity College 443.5
- Hamilton College 382
- Colby College 296
Gratuitous comment to say the league’s season starts a month later “ostensibly to focus on academics”. These schools are much more balanced with swimming and academics than most of the D1 sports factories. Since for 99.9+% of NCAA swimmers it will be an amateur sport with no career prospects unless in coaching or pool administration, I find the focus on academics and later start a worthy approach.
Its a great story, not sure its true. Great academic institutions like MIT, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Carleton, etc. seem to have no problems starting on October 1 — and none of those folks will be professional swimmers either. In fact, theres a lot of (anecdotal) evidence that during the season athletes are focused on team and academics and less on lower value add activities that can get them a very uncomfortable meeting with the Dean of Students. Multiple NESCAC coaches have told me they wish they had the normal start date because it allows them to be more engaged with their athletes and help head off potential problems (and in fairness, one coach was able to articulate very well why he… Read more »
I agree the November 1st start date may not be the key to achieving the right mix of academics and athletics. I think the “right mix” is widely found within Div 3 and outside the NESCAC. The one benefit of the late start is that freshman get a little more time to get acclimated and have the reality check of mid-terms which are typically held before November 1st.
Live results showing men’s results …
http://www.collegeswimming.us/results/104693/
This is womens’ link
Go EPHS! #purplecowrules