The men's and women's swimming and diving squads won almost every race against Bryant University and Providence College in their first meets this weekend. The men easily defeated Bryant, 153-61, and PC, 157-61, while the women posted even more decisive wins, beating the Bulldogs 174-46 and PC 174-48.
The swimmers said they consider this a valuable warmup for their first conference meet Saturday against Dartmouth.
"It was just an opportunity to swim and see what I can do differently for next weekend," said women's quad-captain Allyson Schumacher '12.
Schumacher won the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4 minutes, 32.34 seconds and was followed .18 seconds later by teammate Ellen Downing '14. Sarah Champagne '11 rounded out the top three with a time of 4:39.34.
The top performances from Schumacher, Downing and Champagne were only a sample of Brown's dominating results this weekend. The women's squad took the top two spots in 10 of the 12 events, including the 200-meter medley and freestyle team relays.
The men also won 10 of the 12 events, while "diving had a good, solid meet," according to men's and women's Head Coach Peter Brown.
Though the Bulldogs and Friars did not prove to be much competition for the Bears, "this weekend was just a good gauge for where we are," said tri-captain Ryan Kikuchi '11. He said he thought the freshmen performed well and that it was valuable experience not only for them, but for everyone.
But the meet was perhaps most valuable not for the competition provided by PC and Bryant, but for gaining experience in PC's pool. Since Brown does not have a swimming facility, Bruno will host the Big Green for the swimming portion of the competition at PC this Saturday at noon. The diving portion will start an hour earlier at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
PC's pool is measured in meters, while the Bears normally practice in yards, according to Schumacher. Because of the difference in measurement, the swimmers "were swimming longer courses" than they normally do at practice, Schumacher said.
In addition to racing experience and familiarity with the pool, this meet also helped identify what both teams need to work on to succeed against Dartmouth.
"We need to get better with the details, like starting and turning," Brown said. "Those sorts of things will make a big difference."
After seeing this weekend's performance, Schumacher was confident that Bruno can defeat the Big Green.
"We have a good chance to win, but it's not a guaranteed win," she said. "We have to try harder."
