Division III Championship Preview: The NESCAC Women

Photo Courtesy: Brian Beard/Creative Images Photography Photo Courtesy: Brian Beard/Creative Images Photography

Championship season is officially in full swing. With NCAA Division III teams competing in over 30 different conference championship meets, it’s tough to keep track of them all, but Swimming World will offer a preview of the action at the country’s fastest and deepest meets. Here’s a glimpse at what to expect at the women’s New England Small College Athletic Conference Championships.

Teams: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams

Location: Wesleyan University

Dates: February 14-17

An overview: In 2018 the Williams women secured their fifth consecutive title. While they’re unlikely to go anywhere soon, the Tufts women will look to continue their climb to the top (they were fourth in 2018), following a path forged by their men’s team last year.

Here’s just four of many great races to keep an eye on this weekend…

800 Freestyle Relay

This year the NESCAC has moved the 800 free relay from Saturday to Thursday night, as more conferences are doing. In 2018 only Williams and Amherst qualified an 800 freestyle relay to NCAAs, though additional schools were able to swim one at the meet. The conference sending only two relays was noteworthy, as the NESCAC had four 200 and 400 medley and 400 freestyle relays and, six 200 freestyle relays qualify.

With fresher bodies, and saving top women from swimming the relay as their third 200 freestyle of the day on Saturday, the times in this event will likely drop.

As of the final dual meet this year, 56 women owned a sub-two minute 200 free. Williams and Amhers return their entire relays, who were well ahead last year. They may see more of a challenge from Bowdoin and Tufts teams that boast some 200 free talented first years. After Maddie Ford turned a corner entering the second semester, we’ll see how much she can do to improve the Conn relay she anchored in 2018.

100 Backstroke

The NESCAC brought in a predominately backstroke talented first year class. Based on rosters at the start of the season, a total of 12 first year woman had a 100 backstroke lifetime best that would have placed them in 2018’s Consolation final (58.46-59.51), along with a few with Championship final and Pre-Consolation final worthy times. On that alone, it would seem the event should get faster this year.

As of the end of the dual meet season, first years had seven of the top 24 times in the event, slightly more than their “fair share” but not as many as pre-season predictions would have guessed. The junior class had nine of those top 24 times.

Wesleyan’s junior Caroline Murphy is the defending champion, winning in 55.99 last year. Her first year she was runner up in 55.64. Last year Bowdoin’s Marshall Lowery placed second (56.70), following up on her third place finish from 2017 (56.33).

Heading into this year’s meet Lowery is the top seed in 58.21 ahead of another junior, Tufts’ Grace Goetcheus (58.72) who was 11th last year (58.02). Through dual meets, Murphy sits fourth in 58.85.

100 Breaststroke

On paper, the 100 breaststroke could be the event where the most teams have a dog in the fight. The five fastest times through the dual meet season belong to five different schools.

While Williams junior Caroline White is the defending champion, and the clear favorite after her third place finish at NCAAs last year, Tufts’ Lily Kurtz has been on fire in her second year. Kurtz tied for seventh in her college debut in 1:05.55, but has dropped back to a 1:04.54 in her sophomore year (a half second off her lifetime best), to take the top seed.

Amherst’s Nina Fitzgerald was third at NESCAC’s last year in a lifetime best 1:05.05, and then got even better at Nationals, coming the whole way down to a 1:03.08 for seventh.

Wesleyan first year Mengmeng Gibbs holds a lifetime best 1:06.33, but has already been 1:07.04 in just a dual meet. The Cards typically swim much quicker than their seed times at NESCACs. If she falls into the team mold, Gibbs could be looking at a significant drop and overall impact.

Bates’ Emmy Daigle and Middlebury’s Erin Kelly have the fifth and sixth fastest times, keeping the event interesting for the team race.

200 Butterfly

Through her sophomore year Williams’ Veronica Wolff is perfect in this event. In her freshman year she won it in 2:03.04, a mere .01 ahead of Bowdoin’s Sterling Dixon in 2:03.05. In 2018 Wolff got to the wall in 2:03.98, holding off teammates Madeleine Deardorff, Molly Craig, and Maddie Downs.

Downs has graduated and Craig and Deardorf now have the number one and three times while Wolff ranked fourth. After finishing 11th last year, Tufts’ sophomore Abby Claus is putting herself in the mix with a second-ranked 2:05.46 swum in December. Her teammates Amy Socha and Colleen Doolan also boast top eight times, while Dixon is eighth.

This event is likely an Eph heavy final, but it already looks like it’ll be faster than last year, pushing Wolff to keep her streak alive.

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Nancy Tingley

5 years ago

Abigail Claus

Paula Moore

5 years ago

Go Cardinals!

Katherine Karaconstantis LaLime

5 years ago

Go Jumbos!

M Ellen Villegas Rudel

5 years ago

Nice Cathleen!