Like the majority of Yale undergrads, the men and women’s swimming team traveled to Boston this past weekend. However, instead of going to Harvard for The Game, the Elis spent the weekend in the pool at Boston University, competing at the Terrier Invitational.
The women finished in fifth place out of eight teams with 407 points while the men’s team finished fourth in a field of six teams with 615 points. BU took first place in both the women’s and men’s meets with 865.5 and 801 points respectively.
“Our goal was to swim smart races—get hands on the wall and just race,” women’s head coach Christina Teuscher said.
The relay team of Alex Forrester ’13, Cynthia Tsay ’13, Joan Weaver ’13, and Hayes Hyde ’12 won the 800-yd freestyle relay in a time of 7:33.27. The same squad placed second in the 400-yd freestyle relay in 3:28.03. The 200-yd medley relay team of Tsay, Athena Liao ’12, Hyde, and Forrester placed third with a time of 1:47.55.
The team also had strong performances in the individual events. Forrester won the 100-yd butterfly, 200-yd butterfly, and 100-yd freestyle. Weaver had a strong performance in the 1650-yd freestyle on Sunday, dropping 22 seconds off of her all-time personal best and finishing second.
“I’ve only swum the mile once before,” said Weaver. “I was nervous to go out too fast. I went out slow, felt good, and picked it up, and it turned out alright.”
The final score reflects the events from all three days of competition including the Friday sessions in which the women did not compete. According to Teuscher, the team had a successful meet.
“We are a small but mighty team,” Teuscher said.
On the men’s side, the distance events proved to be the greatest strength for the Elis as they did in last week’s meet against Columbia.
Matt Lee ’11 won the 1650-yd freestyle in a time of 15:54.17, followed by his teammates Mikey Bogese ’14 and West Cuthbert ’14 who finished third and fourth respectively. In the 500-yd freestyle, the Bulldogs put six swimmers in the top 16. Lee, Cuthbert, and Bogese finished fourth, sixth, and seventh respectively. Mike Dominski ’13 won the ‘B’ final in 4:41.79 to place ninth overall, while teammates Ed Becker ’14 and Danny Clarke ’14 finished fourteenth and sixteenth overall.
Captain Kyle Veatch ’11 had a busy and successful meet, finishing second in the 100-yd butterfly, third in the 200-yd freestyle, and fifth in the 100-yd freestyle and 50-yd freestyle.
“It was a great learning experience for us, especially the freshmen,” Chris Luu ’12 said. “Almost everybody had a second swim at night.”
The men’s and women’s teams returned to New Haven on Sunday night and had practices through Tuesday afternoon before disbanding for Thanksgiving. Their next meets are scheduled for Dec. 4. The men’s team will travel to the University of Massachusetts while the women’s team will travel to the University of Vermont. Six members of the women’s team who have achieved the necessary qualifying times will compete at Short Course Nationals in Columbus, Oh. Dec. 2-4.