Sports
Swimming closes season at NESCAC'S
By by Tucker Hamlin ’17
March 6, 2015
With the winter season coming to a close as spring rapidly approaches, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams finished their respective seasons with trips to the NESCAC tournament. With the women traveling to Wesleyan and the men traveling to Middlebury, both took on highly skilled schools at their meets.
Led by top swimmer Reid Swartz ’15, the men’s team finished with 490 points beating out Colby College for 9th place. Swartz broke the school record for the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:50:48 during a preliminary heat while going on to finish 10th overall with a time of 1:51:16. Additionally during the 1,650-freestyle Ryan Cassidy ’17 ended up in 11thplace with a time of 16:15:42.
These performances put both Swartz and Cassidy on the 2015 NCAA Division III Championships psych sheet. Due to his performance in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke, Swartz met the NCAA championship provisional “B” cut times. Similarly, Cassidy made the cut with his time at the NESCAC tournament.
During the women’s campaign at the meet, McKenna Kelly ’15 and Sarah Hooper ’16 finished 16th in the 1,650-yard freestyle and 12th in the 100-free respectively. Sarah Izzo ’15 placed second in the pre-consolation final of the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:10:28 along with Lauren Halladay ’16 finishing in 6th place in the pre-consolation final of the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:20:36.
Overall, the women finished in 10th place with 435 points. The Continentals landed behind Colby College who accumulated 448.5 points, but the women did beat last place Trinity College who finished with a mere 355 points.
Along with their work in the pool, they have both been excelling in the classroom. During the fall semester, the men posted a 3.35 GPA while the women accumulated an astounding GPA of 3.52. The success in the classroom has landed them on the 2014 Fall Team Scholar All-America award from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America. This is the fourth straight semester that both the men and women have received this award.
Although a core of seniors is graduating in June, the team contains many young stars that are bound to emerge in the coming years. Hamilton’s coach, T.J. Davis, who just completed his 13th season with the program, continues to remain focused on helping the team both in the pool and in the classroom.