By Sophie Afdhal ’15, Associate Sports Editor
The lady Dips of the F&M Swim team are off to a mixed start in the season. The season opener occurred on the 26th against John’s Hopkins University. The number-three team defeated F&M 161-96, dropping their record to 0-1 overall.
Katherine Grant ’15 earned two wins for the team. She finished first in the 1,000 yard freestyle with a time of 10:54.17. She also picked up the win in the 500-yard freestyle. Her time in this event, 5:17.15, was the fastest of the entire day. She clinched the only two wins, but several other swimmers had third and fourth place times.
Rebecca Daen ’14 took fourth in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:00.63. Courtney Collins ’16 finished third in the 100-yard backstroke. Maggie Johns ’15 also placed third in the 200-yard butterfly and Jillian Albus ’17 took second in the 50-yard freestyle with a good exhibition. Despite good times and performances, F&M was unable to edge out Johns Hopkins for the win and began their season 0-1.
On Saturday, F&M Women’s Swimming competed against the Bryn Mawr Owls in Centennial Conference play. The lady Dips defeated the owls to give them a 1-1 overall record and an undefeated record in conference play. The team had several impressive individual performances on Saturday.
Jillian Albus ’17 secured two wins for the team. She placed first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:01:98 and the 100-yard freestyle at 54:93. Albus also participated in the 200-yard medley relay team that won with a time of 1:56:23.
Daen placed first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.42 and Alexia Tomlinson ’14 cemented a win in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 11.01.27. Caitlyn Fuller ’14 contributed another win in the 200-yard individual medley. Courtney Collins ’16 clocked a time of 1:04.12 to win the 100-yard butterfly.
The Bryn Mawr Owls had only four first place finishes during the day, and the Lady Dips secured their first Centennial Conference win.
“It was a good opportunity to show the conference how hard we have been training,” Collins said. “It was a low-pressure meet. It was fun to go out there and just get up and swim. I am proud of the effort all the Lady Dips have been putting in this season. Overall we had a good meet. Our team is looking promising this year, and we have so much more to show the conference. The hundred butterfly is one of my favorite events. It’s fun to get up at meets and swim fast and race different girls.”
Katie Grant ’15 also commented on their performance. “We were all very happy about our first in-conference win against Bryn Mawr on Saturday,” Grant said. “Even though our training has been increasingly harder through the past couple weeks, and we knew going into the meet we were not in prime condition to race, the spirits were high, and we all had the same goal going into to it — to show the centennial conference that we are the main competition they need to watch out for this season. Now we look forward to our next in-conference meet against Swarthmore on Saturday, going in with the same mind set and ready to show everyone just what Diplomat swimming is all about this season.”
The team will return to the action on Nov. 9 against Swarthmore College at home.
Junior Sophie Afdhal is the Associate Sports Editor. Her email is safdhal@fandm.edu.