Though men’s and women’s swimming and diving enjoyed a productive training trip, they both recorded losses this weekend, falling to Penn and Harvard in the first meets of 2015. The women (3-3, 1-3 Ivy) put up a stronger fight in the matchups, losing by a 51-point margin to both Harvard (6-1, 6-0) and Penn (4-4, 3-4), while the men (2-3, 1-3) suffered 174 and 108-point defeats to the Crimson (7-0, 5-0) and the Quakers (3-5, 2-5), respectively. Both Brown squads fell to 1-3 in the Ivy League with the losses.
The Bears swam hard over break, maintaining rigorous practice routines while away from College Hill.
“Over break, we train the same as we do during the week, which is around 20-25 hours per week,” said co-captain Kate Dillione ’15. “We were expected to stay in the weight room three times per week and swim nine times per week at least.”
The team traveled to Florida in January for its annual training trip, where they continued to build on their “elite level” of training, Dillione said.
The Bears returned to Providence to face the Crimson and the Quakers at home, with the women claiming some top finishes — including three wins — from some standout swimmers. Dillione led the way in collecting points for the Bears, taking the top spot in the 100 and 200 free, and contributing a leg to the winning 400 free relay, along with Aja Grande ’18, Korbyn Simpson ’18 and Reia Tong ’16.
“Against Harvard and Penn, we wanted to get up and race, no matter how tired our bodies were,” Dillione said.
Bruno garnered more points as Gina Matsumoto ’16 earned a first-place finish in the 200 fly. Her teammate, Caroline Vexler ’17 was right behind her to notch a 1-2 finish for the team. The Bears’ 200 meter medley relay of Grande, Tong, Vexler and Jenna Zagoren ’18 notched a second-place finish with a time of 1:45.96. Tong added to her performance in the relay with a victory in the 50 free, posting a splintering time of 23.77.
Bruno’s divers contributed points as well, with Molly Gelb ’17 and Rachel Speakman ’16 rounding out the diving competition at fifth and sixth place, respectively.
“We did an awesome job at maintaining composure and positive attitudes, and everyone showed up and raced,” Dillione said. “It was a good team experience. We will definitely continue to work on finishing strong and winning the close races.”
Some standouts on the women’s team earned top finishes, but their teammates were not able to support them with equivalent performances.
Meanwhile, the men’s team failed to claim first in any event. The men’s top finisher was Jonathon Schlafer ’17, who finished second in the 1-meter dive. Willy Lee ’18 raced to a third-place finish in the 100 back, while teammate Daniel Klotz ’17 also earned a third-place finish in the 50 free. Cory Mayfield ’16 chipped in points with two fourth-place finishes of his own in the 500 and 1000 free.
Both the men and women’s squads currently sit near the bottom of the Ivy rankings. Wins this weekend against Columbia (men 4-2, 2-2 and women 0-4, 0-4) could help balance out the teams’ records as they push onward toward Ivy and NCAA championships. Bruno will compete in New York Saturday, hoping to bring a win back to Providence as championship meets loom around the corner.
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