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NESCAC 100 breaststroke champion Jenny Hu
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BRUNSWICK, ME - The Tufts women's swimming & diving team swam four school-record performances on Sunday as the Jumbos overtook Middlebury College to place third at the 2013 NESCAC Championships hosted by Bowdoin College.
Tufts scored a total of 1,017.5 points during the three-day event to edge Middlebury (1,006.5). Amherst College ended Williams College's 12-year run as NESCAC champions with 1,972.5 points for first with the Ephs in second at 1,909.5 points.
Junior Jenny Hu (Oakland, MA) produced the only victory of the weekend for head coach Nancy Bigelow's Jumbos when she won the 100 breaststroke on Saturday. However, the Jumbos used excellent depth to earn their third straight third-place showing at NESCAC's.
Tufts established six new school records and swam seven NCAA national B qualifying times at the meet.
Hu's win in the 100 breast on Saturday came in a 1:05.15 time that stood as a school record and her B cut for about a day. She swam a time trial in the event on Sunday and improved on the mark with a 1:04.81 finish. The times broke her own school record of 1:05.78 set last year.
Junior Taylor Lentz (Edina, MN) was also a high scorer in the 50 and 100 breaststrokes. On Friday, Lentz finished as the runner-up in the 50 breaststroke. She won the preliminary round Friday morning, timing 29.87 seconds. In the final, she was edged by Jamie Hillas from Middlebury 29.82 to 29.90. The Jumbos had four swimmers in the top 13 for the 50 breast, including Hu in fifth with a 30.14 time. Lentz then placed fourth in the 100 breast on Saturday with an NCAA B mark (1:06 flat).
Senior tri-captain Christine Garvey (West Chester, PA) added a trio of strong performances to the Tufts total. On Saturday she was four seconds faster in the 400 individual medley final than she was in the preliminary, touching in 4:33.39 for ninth and a B cut. She also broke a school record in the lead-off leg of the 800 freestyle relay with her 200 split of 1:53.24.
On Sunday, she swam 2:04.74 in the 200 butterfly to finish as the conference runner-up and add another NCAA B cut. The school-record time was nearly four seconds faster than the 2:08.57 she recorded in 2011.
The 400 and 800 freestyle relays made their mark with a pair of B cuts and one school record. The 800 team put itself in national consideration on Saturday with a 7:42.20 time swam by Garvey, sophomore Kathryn Coniglio (Branchburg, NJ), senior tri-captain Lizz Grainger (Nashville, TN), and sophomore Samantha Sliwinski (Weymouth, MA). They were fifth. On Sunday, Coniglio, Garvey, Grainger, and Sliwinski combined for a 3:32.18 finish that was both a school record and a NCAA B cut. They topped last year's 3:32.91 school record and placed sixth at the meet.
Sliwinski posted a pair of new records in the freestyle sprints. She set a new 50 freestyle mark on Friday's opening day of the meet. Rounding into form after an illness during the season, she timed 24.37 to tie for eighth place with Williams' Catherine Treeth in the 50 free prelims. Sliwinski then went 23.93 in the swim-off to improve upon her own Tufts record and earn a berth into the conference final. There she was sixth at 24.26 seconds. On Sunday, her 52.29 in the 100 free trials broke her own school record. She was seventh in the final (52.68), behind Coniglio's 52.30 for fifth place.
The Jumbos had numerous other top 16 finishers, which ulitimately provided the points necessary to record their third-place effort. The NCAA national B qualifiers will now await the upcoming release of the NCAA Swimming & Diving Chamnpionships field. The meet will be held March 20-23 in Texas.
Results
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