MEDFORD, Mass. – The Tufts University women's swimming and diving team finished the New England Small College Athletic Conference Championship in fourth place Sunday. It is the program's best finish since 2013 when they came in third. The Jumbos were in sixth after day one and fourth after day two.
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| Kimura had the best finish of any Jumbo with her second place in the 200 breaststroke. |
Tufts finished with 1,023.5 points, putting them 25 points ahead of fifth place Bowdoin and 37 points behind third place Connecticut College. Williams came in first with a score of 1,971 and Amherst claimed second with a 1,615.
The Jumbos competed in 13 final events over the three days with nine of those coming on Friday and Saturday. Each day preliminary races were held in the morning with finishers one through eight qualifying for the final. Nine through 16 would compete in a consolation final. The top three finishers in each event would earn All-NESCAC honors.
The squad set four program records over the three days of competition. The first two came on Friday when Jackie Crater, Anna Kimura, Sasha Fong, and Colleen Doolan set a new mark in the 400 medley relay and then Fong set one on her own as well in the 50 breaststroke.
Fong had a hand in a third program record that the Jumbos set Sunday, this time in the 400 freestyle relay. Along with Crater, Abby Claus, and Doolan, they finished in seventh with a time of 3:32.71, which set the record by two tenths of a second over the old record that stood since 2013. Including the two relays, Crater was also involved in a third record, this time individually in the 200 backstroke. She came in tenth overall with a time of 2:04.12, beating teammate Grace Goetcheus' record of 2:04.84 that she set last season. Goetcheus also competed in this race and finished just behind Crater in 11th with a 2:05.54.
Anna Kimura had the best finish by a Jumbo over the whole weekend when she came in second place in the 200 breaststroke on Sunday with a time of 2:19.44 and claimed 28 points. The mark was under the NCAA B qualifier of 2:22.73, which puts Kimura in the running to race at the national meet. Lily Kurtz came in sixth in the race with a time of 2:23.93 and 24 points and Katherine Brown was in ninth with a 2:25.34.
Doolan finished in sixth in the 200 butterfly with a 2:07.30 and grabbed 24 points. Claus came in 11th with a 2:08.32. Amber Chong came in ninth in the three-meter dive with a score of 358.40. And Sook-Hee Evans took 16th in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 17:51.35.
Over the three days of competition, Doolan and Crater tied for the most finals appearances by a Jumbo with five each. Fong competed in four, while Kimura and Kurtz each swam in three. Claus, Evans, and Jess Lee competed in two finals a piece and Goetcheus, Chong, and Sydney Nasson all qualified for one each.
Tufts improved their performance from last year's NESCAC Championship by 323 points when they finished in eighth with a score of 700.5.
Up next for the squad will be the February Invite at Bowdoin next Sunday.
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Written by Curtis Stoychoff, Athletic Communications Intern
