Swimming and diving opens season with trio of road meets

The men’s and women’s diving teams started off the season with back-to-back away meets the weekend of Nov. 20-21, swimming against Tufts and Connecticut College in New London on Saturday and at Springfield College on Sunday. The women defeated Tufts while falling in close matches against Springfield and Connecticut. The men dropped all three contests, including a narrow 153-146 defeat by Springfield.

Although the women were only able to pull off one win on the weekend, there were several strong individual performances.  Katherine Loftus ’12 easily won the 1,000-yard freestyle on Saturday and came in second to teammate Nora Daly ’12 in the 200-yard freestyle on Sunday.  Captains John Dillon ’11 and Matthew Vukich ’11 paced the men on Sunday with two individual wins each along with their contributions to the Panthers’ strong relay teams.

“We really need to have everyone get on the same page,” said Coach Peter Solomon.  “We left some swimmers at school due to academic issues, and if we had them with us the meets might have played out differently and more in our favor. I certainly think we have the potential to surprise people at the end of the season, but right now we really need to get on the same page as a team.”

First-year swimmers Andie Tibbetts ’14 and Nick Keenan ’14 both had fantastic starts to their Panther careers. Tibbetts won the 100-yard backstroke on both days while Keenan won the 400-yard individual medley on Saturday and the 200-yard freestyle on Sunday.

Sprinter Ian Mackay ’14 had a great debut as well, placing fifth in the 50-yard freestyle on Saturday and first on Sunday with times of 22.52 and 22.64 seconds, respectively.  Several other first-year atheletes competed fiercely over the weekend and will be counted on to continue improving over the course of the season.

Also winning races over the weekend for the women were Jessie Ward ’11, Rachel Curtiss ’14 and Alexandra Edel ’14.

The Panthers are well-rested after Thanksgiving break and look to put up a strong fight against rival Amherst College Saturday at 1:00 at the Natatorium.