Just two weeks before hosting the 2015 Women’s NESCAC Swimming & Diving Championship, the Wesleyan Women topped Coast Guard by 69 points – winning their senior meet. On the men’s side, The Coast Guard Academy made good use of its depth and prevailed over the Cardinal men by 80 points.
Serena Zalkowitz, Wesleyan ’17
“We’re definitely ready for taper.” Wesleyan sophomore Serena Zalkowitz said – alluding to her aching legs and missing “the cows coming down from the mountain” – a start-to-winter tradition that the Switzerland native watched via webcast in her hometown. Even with no descending cows in sight, Serena would post the fastest freestyle relay split of the meet – a quick :25.28 during her anchor leg of the first event, the women’s 200 yard medley relay. She would later take 3rd place in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of :26.08 – just touched out by Wesleyan freshman Corinne Noonan who swam a time of :26.01.
Team Scores:
Wesleyan Women: 181 | Coast Guard Women: 112
Coast Guard Men: 185 | Wesleyan Men : 105
Click Here for final meet results
Wesleyan Senior Angela Slevin played a crucial role for the lady cards., winning the 1000 yard freestyle, the 100 back, the 200 back, and the 200 medley relay. Another key contributor to the Cardinals’ success was superstar senior and Alexa Burzinski – who rocked both the 100 and 200 yard butterflies, posting times of 1:02.66 and 2:16.75, respectively. Fellow senior Rachel Hirsh posted a meet-best time in her breaststroke leg, swimming a :31.37, but later fell to teammate and freshman Luisa Chan in the 100 yard breast – Luisa taking first with a time of 1:08.75. Rachel would come back to win the 200 breast with a time of 2:30.46. Freshman Lauren Conte took first place in the 500 yard freestyle with a time of 5:28.71 – winning by nearly 15 seconds.
For the Coast Guard, junior Patti Eidenire took first place in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of :25.33. For the 200 free, senior Darlene Sao coasted to a 4-second unrivaled finish, taking first with a 2:00.26. Darlene later won the 100 free and 200 IM, with a times of :55.75 and 2:16.26, respectively.
In Diving, Wesleyan junior Carly Feinman took first place with a score of 214.87 in the 1 meter event. For 3 meter diving, senior Natasha Cucullo would, “kill the game” with a score of 212.92.
The Coast Guard men, evenly well-versed in sprinters and distance swimmers, ended with an 80 point win over the Cardinals. Senior Christian Brindamour started off by anchoring the “A” relay with a quick :21.15. Christian shaved about a quarter of a second off his relay time, and won the 50 free with a :20.84. Christian also took first in the 100 free.
Christian Brindamour, Coast Guard ’15
For the men’s 200 free, Coast Guard’s Mike Franco, Elliot Vanderen, and Timothy Dion all swept first, second, and third – respectively. Mike took first with a time of 1:48.93. Elliot would later go on to claim the 200 breast, while Carl Fuhs snuck into first place for the 100 yard breaststroke by just :00.11 seconds – winning with a time of 1:01.89. Coast Guard freshman Ross Garrett won the 200 fly, doing so at 1:57.04. Ross also won the 500 yard freestyle, with a time of 4:51.61. Ryan Buys, a Coast Guard senior, won the 100 yard butterfly, swimming a quick :52.80. Coast Guard junior Ben Morseth took first in the 200 IM with a time of 2:01. Coast Guard’s “A” relay – consisting of Christian, freshman Brandon Ledford, Elliot, and Ross would take the 200 free relay – with a time of 1:28.54.
For the Cardinals, freshman Aidan Winn showed he wasn’t messing around by winning the first individual event of the meet – the 1000 yard freestyle – with a time of 10:11.84. His teammate Spencer Tang later took firsts in the 100 back and 200 backs, with times of :54.14 and 1:57.64, respectively.
For men’s diving, Wesleyan’s Brandon Pearson swept both the 3 and 1 meter events, with scores of 291.93 and 263.70, respectively.
Follow the Cardinals as the Women compete at home for the NESCAC title from February 13-15 while the men hit the road up to NESCACs at Middlebury College, from February 20-22.
Check out both the Coast Guard men and woman as they take on the rest of the NEWMAC during championships held at WPI, from February 19-22.
Agreed. Love the writing.
Good article. Great writing!