MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Tufts University women's swimming & diving team won three titles on the final day of the 2020 NESCAC Championships hosted by Middlebury College on Sunday.
Freshman Claire Brennan in the 100 freestyle (51.07 seconds), junior Amy Socha in the 200 butterfly (2:01.71) and the 400 freestyle relay of Brennan, freshman Katelin Isakoff, Socha and sophomore Mary Hufziger (3:24.74) all won today with school-record times. The Jumbos finished second as a team overall.
Tufts won four total titles at the 2020 NESCAC meet, the most ever by the Jumbos since the competition started in 2001. In addition to today's winners, Hufziger had captured the 200 freestyle race (1:48.77) on Saturday. Socha won the 200 butterfly title for the second straight year and became the first Jumbo swimmer since Mika Sumiyoshi in 2004 to win back-to-back conference titles in the same event.
Brennan had broken the Jumbo 100 freestyle record in the preliminaries Sunday morning when she was second with a 51.46 time. She came back even faster in the finals, where her 51.07 new record won the race. Hufziger placed fifth with a 51.45 mark. Both swimmers recorded NCAA B cuts.
Socha's 2:01.71 to win the 200 fly was also a Middlebury Natatorium record. Tufts had three swimmers record NCAA B marks in the event, including Isakoff (2:04.97) and freshman Chloe Deveney (2:05.47). Isakoff, whose faster time was in the prelims, placed seventh in the final (2:05.48) and Deveney was ninth.
Tufts ended the meet on Sunday night by edging Williams College at the finish of the 400 freestyle relay. Tufts' 3:24.74 – also a pool record – was 0.11 ahead of the Ephs' runner-up mark (3:24.85). The win ended a streak of 29 consecutive relay victories at the NESCAC meet by Williams. That Tufts NCAA B time was joined by the Jumbos' second 400 free relay group of freshman Elle Morse, senior tri-captain Grace Goetcheus, freshman Camille Ross and junior Abby Claus also recording a B mark of 3:28.72 in the event.
Goetcheus had started the day by breaking the school record in the 200 backstroke with a 2:02.92 NCAA B cut. She was later fourth in the final (2:03.02), with Claus right behind her in fifth (2:03.36 NCAA B time).
Freshman diver Alaina Kosko scored a huge second-place finish in today's three-meter event, totaling a 440.55 score to go over the NCAA B mark. Junior Lily Kurtz was fourth in the 200 breaststroke with a 2:19.68 touch for another NCAA B cut. Junior Sook-hee Evans added another NCAA B mark with her sixth-place swim in the 1,650 freestyle (17:24.80).
In total for the meet, Tufts had 13 top-three finishes which constitutes All-Conference honors. Twelve Jumbos in total posted top-three finishes, led by Hufziger's five. New records were set in 13 events (eight individual and five relays), with 11 swimmers participating in the record-setting performances. Both Goetcheus and Brennan broke two individual records each, while Hufziger was involved in five (four relays, one individual). A total of 35 NCAA B cuts were accomplished by the Jumbos. The official NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships psych sheet is scheduled to be posted on March 2.
The Jumbos totaled 1,593.5 points, which is 154 points more than they scored last season (1,439.5) when they also placed second at the meet. The back-to-back second-place finishes are the best by Tufts since the NESCAC meet started in 2000-01. Williams College won the 2020 title with a 1,930.5 score.
Next on the schedule for Tufts is the February Invitational next Sunday at Williams College, site of the 2020 NESCAC men's meet next weekend.
