In the last home meet of the season, the Bulldogs sank their local opponents.
The men’s and women’s swim teams both defeated UConn on Saturday in a meet that honored the seniors in their career home finale. The men’s squad took first in 13 of the 16 events to win 199-99, and the women’s team won 164.5-133.5.
“It’s tough to come back after a big meet like HYP, but I thought we did a pretty good job of swimming just as fast, if not faster in a lot of cases,” said Tyler Scheid ’09, who finished first and second in a pair of butterfly events Saturday.
In last weekend’s HYP meet, both the men’s and women’s teams lost to Harvard by over 100 points and to Princeton by over 70 points.
Being the last home meet for the seniors on the squad served as not only a motivational factor for those in the class of 2008, but also for their younger teammates.
“I really wanted to send them off well,” Scheid said. “It will be sad to see all the seniors go, especially after being with them on the team for three years now.”
The women’s team utilized this motivation and rebounded well from last weekend’s losses at the HYP meet. The Bulldogs won first place in nine events and left UConn little room to catch up on points.
“The majority of the team swam pretty well, and I don’t really feel that there was one race, but rather it was just all the races put together that made the difference,” Brittany Iacouzze ’11 said.
Iacouzze won both the 500-yard and 1000-yard freestyle events, edging out teammate Laura Strittmatter ’09, who placed second in both. The freshman distance swimmer was not the only one to take first in two of her events. Ileana Lucos ’11 won the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard butterfly, and Alexis Mann ’09 finished in the top spot in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle races.
“It was exciting to win the last home meet of the season, especially with it being senior day,” Iacouzze said.
On the men’s side of the competition, the Elis not only won the top spot in each event, but also came away with second and even third place in some races as well. The Bulldogs swept the top three positions in the 500-yard freestyle and 1000-yard freestyle events, and Matt Lee ’11 earned first in both events.
Jeff Lichtenstein ’08 also continued his domination on the boards. The senior, who serves as a consummate bright spot for the Elis, won both the one meter and three meter dives, easily defeating Connecticut’s Stephen Ferreria by impressively large margins.
Scheid took first place in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:50.49, beating out teammate Chris Pool ’09 who finished in 1:51.25. Pool and Scheid also took the top two spots in the 100-yard butterfly, with Pool taking first and Scheid second. In the 200-yard freestyle event, Lugar Choi ’11 and Kyle Veatch ’11 placed first and second, and in the 100-yard breaststroke, Matt Sweitzer ’09 and Colin Stalnecker ’08 nabbed the top two slots, respectively.
The demonstration of team talent and depth is one that both men’s and women’s swimmers hope to continue with in next week’s Brown meet and the upcoming championship meets.
“I definitely think that a couple more one-two’s in events would be great,” Pool said. “In the last duel meet of the season, we just want to keep the ball rolling and finish out with another win.”