By Jimmy Brooks, News Correspondent
The swimming & diving team faced a slew of opponents at the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) pod meet at James Madison University Saturday and Sunday.
The Huskies fared strongly against the College of Charleston, outscoring the Cougars 291-62. But the Huskies did not manage as well against the other three schools, falling to JMU 214-139, ODU 211-142 and W&M 193-160.
The Huskies fell to 3-3 on the season, and 0-3 against CAA squads.
Yet rather than putting this meet in a negative light, head coach Roy Coates chose to take this as a sign of hope for the rest of the season.
“Over the course of the two days, I think we proved to ourselves that we’re in the mix with the competition,” Coates said. “We did lose to the three, but we were close with William & Mary and that’s encouraging.”
Coates said he was particularly impressed with junior swimmer Jill Kearns, who had two second-place finishes on Saturday, posting a time of 2:06.05 in the 200-yard butterfly and a time of 4:32.22 in the 400-yard individual medley.
“Jill had a great meet, she did particularly well,” Coates said. “Definitely the star of the meet in my opinion. She swam to her best times of the season across the board, and she really stood out today.”
Fittingly, Kearns was recognized for her accomplishments and was named the Northeastern Athletics Student-Athlete of the week Nov 8.
“I’m definitely proud of myself,” Kearns said. “I really didn’t expect to do anything spectacular, to be honest. It felt good to go out and reach a bunch of season-best times.”
Northeastern had a strong showing from its first and second year swimmers.
Saturday, Northeastern’s 400-yard medley team captured a third place finish with a time of 3:58.43. The team consisted of freshmen Dana Schleif and Julia Alvarez and sophmores Alli Gielowski and Kelley Becherer.
Northeastern divers placed fourth, fifth and sixth on the three-meter platform, as junior Rachel Peterson, and freshmen Candace Young and Le Anna Talarico had scores of 246.15, 237.20 and 220.80 respectively.
Freshman swimmer Adriana Sepulveda turned in a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle as well, clocking in at 1:55.54, and Alvarez finish second in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing at 1:06.08.
“I think the underclassmen all did really well,” Sepulveda said. “We were able to score points and help out the team, which was huge.”
The second day yielded similar results. A team comprised of freshmen Schleif and Alvarez, and seniors Sarah Martin and Erica Smotrycz took third in the 200-medley relay, touching the wall at 1:49.19.
“I think we were all tired on the second day but we still raced hard,” Sepulveda said. “All the girls would cheer for whoever was swimming on the team and that helped keep everyone motivated and ready to go.”
Sophomore Becherer finished fourth place in the 100-yard freestyle, posting a time of 53.97. Schleif had a fourth-place finish of her own in the 200-backstroke, touching the wall at 2:09.91. Alvarez took fifth in the 200-breaststroke with a time of 2:25.86.
Sepulveda claimed second in the 200-individual medley and Kearns finished third at 2:11.15.
The Huskies go into their next meet with confidence they can narrow the small gap between themselves and their rival schools.
“This week was a good sign for the Terrier Invitational [Nov. 19-21]. I like to believe we kind of caught the other teams off guard,” Kearns said. “We usually aren’t as competitive, so I’m glad we may have scared the other team.”
“If there’s one thing we can improve on it’s just continuing to cheer everyone throughout the entire meet,” Sepulveda said. “Support is going to be a major factor come two weeks from now, so hopefully we can rally around each other.”
The Huskies will travel across town to Boston University Nov. 19 and return to the pool after a 13-day hiatus for the three-day Terrier Invitational.
