By Chris Judd, News correspondent
This weekend, the Northeastern swimming and diving team competed in their first major intrasquad meet of a relatively young season, defeating two out of the four schools at the meet.
The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Pod Meet, held in Fairfax, Va., slated George Mason University (GMU), James Madison University (JMU), Old Dominion University (ODU), and the College of William & Mary against the Huskies.
Northeastern beat GMU 201-151 and beat ODU 200-153. However, Northeastern lost to JMU 213-138 and lost to William & Mary 183-164. The squad now sits at 4-3 with a 2-2 conference record.
Freshman Anna Schegoleva won the 100-yard backstroke, recording a time of 57:31 and came in second for the 200-yard backstroke, recording a time of 2:02.94. Her time for the 200-yard backstroke set a school record set last year by the then-freshman Dana Schleif at the BU Invitational.
She also finished in second place in the 200-yard individual medley (IM). Junior Keary McClernan placed second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:23.20. Senior Jill Kearns recorded a first place finish in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:05.02.
“I really didn’t expect to win the 100 backstroke,” Schegoleva said. “I was very excited and felt that it was too good to be true.”
Kearns said she was very happy with her team’s performance, despite an unusual pairing of opponents. Kearns also said that since last season, the returning swimmers have made noticeable progress.
“We did really well; we usually don’t see a lot of schools in our conference,” Kearns said. “We normally compete against closer schools, like BC, BU. It was nice to go there to see all of these schools. We didn’t expect much, but we came in third. I felt pretty good about our performance, we are faster now than this time last year. Everyone has improved.”
Head coach Roy Coates echoed comments by Kearns in his belief that the team has taken a step up compared to last year, when the team finished eighth at CAA championships.
“I was overly impressed with the team’s performance,” Coates said. “Their performance was outstanding. Across the board, we stepped up against teams we haven’t beaten historically. On paper, we should have been 0-4, but we went 2-2, which shows how well we performed. Our freshmen also performed well. Across the board, the freshmen have been well-prepared for collegiate swimming.”
Freshman Erica DeMunbrun recorded a time of 58.45 in the 100-yard butterfly for fifth place, which led Northeastern. Freshman Deidre Esposito recorded a time of 1:05.80 in the 100-yard butterfly for a fifth place finish. She also took ninth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:28.41. Schleif, Esposito, Schegoleva and sophomore Julia Sepulveda got fourth place in the 400-yard IM with a time of 3:53.41.
Despite Schegoleva’s performance during the meet, she is taking every head coach in the world’s most repeated piece of advice: “Take things one step at a time.” Schegoleva and company have taken the first step and now the freshman is beginning to focus on the next one.
“[Boston University] is another stepping stone,” Schegoleva said. “It feels good to know we have accomplished something this year [after performing well in the conference tournament] I’m looking forward to it.”
Schegoleva spoke of the next meet, which is in two weeks at Boston University. The Huskies’ outstanding performance during the conference meet provides momentum for the Terriers, a cross-town foe.
“We’ll prepare for BU with hard work, but also rest,” Coates said. “It’s more like a championship match, so we’ll treat it a little differently than most matches. We’ll make sure our athletes are fresh.
Kearns, however, mentioned no plans for rest in her preparation for BU, instead saying that she intends to train for the meet she believes is the most important of the season.
“To prepare for BU, we’ll be more focused and changing our training,” she said. “Besides championships, BU is our biggest meet, and we’ll train for it like it’s a championship.”
