By Christopher Judd, News Correspondent
The swimming and diving team stands at a comfortable 5-3 record after beating the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) 166-134 Saturday.
The Huskies had another strong showing, with NU getting eight first place finishes thanks to freshman Anna Schegoleva, who broke another school record – the 100 yard backstroke – with a time of 56.95.
This is the third school record that she has set this year after breaking the record for the 200 backstroke at the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) pod meet in November and the 200 Individual Medley at BU two weeks ago.
“I didn’t expect to break another school record,” Schegoleva said. “It was a nice surprise. The rest of the year should be exciting, there will be more surprises. We aren’t going to stop our training, and we will still try our best.”
Sophomore Adriana Sepulveda won the 500-yard freestyle by three seconds with a time of 5:08.09, while junior Nicole Colucci and sophomore Dana Schleif tied for first in the 50-yard backstroke with times of 28.70. Schegoleva added to her already impressive start this season by winning the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.62, while senior Jill Kearns lurked not far behind in second with a time of 58.51.
Schegoleva picked up her third win of the meet – dominating the 50-yard butterfly with a time of 26.66. Julia Alvarez won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:06.97. Kearns finished off the day with a first place finish in the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 1:01.73. The 200-yard medley relay quartet of Schleif, Junior Keary McClernan, freshman Erica DeMunbrun and Colluci finished in first with a time of 1:52.18.
“The team did well, we weren’t expecting to win by as much as we did,” Schegoleva said. “Psychologically, we were ready and knew that we had to perform well, which we did. If we continue training hard, we’ll keep this level of performance up. We have good attitudes, and all of us want to win.”
Along with Schegoleva, Northeastern’s other freshmen performed well. Megan Foran finished second in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:11.29 and finished third in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:56.61. Jessica Colucci finished fifth in the 100-yard freestyle, touching the wall at 55.40. Erica DeMunbrun finished third in the 50-yard backstroke with a time of 28.85 and finished third in the 100-yard individual medley with a time of 1:02.68.
“All of our freshmen have done well,” Coates said. “Anna stands out among the freshmen, but Esposito, Foran and DeMunbrun have also done really well. They are all performing well.”
After this, Northeastern has a training trip to Puerto Rico at the end of December, and their next meet is Jan. 14.
“Our whole season is about conference champions,” Coates said. “We can lose all our meets, and still win the conference champions, or vice versa. All our meets are about training. Our record gives us a snapshot of where we stand, and I think we will continue to perform well.”
