By Chris Judd, News Correspondent
The swimming and diving team traveled to Norfolk, Va., for a Colonial Athletic Association pod meet with George Mason, Towson and Old Dominion universities on Saturday.
The Huskies beat George Mason, 254-97, but fell to to Towson, 255-96, and to Old Dominion, 186-161.
“Overall, it was a good weekend,” head coach Roy Coates said. “We got to see some teams in the conference. We had hoped to beat Old Dominion because they are just a step above us, but we’ll beat them in the Conference Championships. We have to get healthy and better.”
Northeastern’s goal throughout the season has been to climb at least one place in the conference. Beating Old Dominion would be an improvement over last year, when the team finished sixth in the CAA Championships.
“We’re looking to move up another spot in the conference,” Keary McClernan, a senior swimmer, said. “As a whole, we want to get as many swims in as possible. The 20 points that we lost to Dominion by comes down to a couple of spots in every event.”
Swimmers get more “swims” by advancing from the first stage of heats into the final heats, where they get points for their finishes.
The Huskies took three spots in the top 10 of the 200-meter individual medley with sophomore Anna Schegoleva finishing in third with a time of 2:09.34, sophomore Erica DeMunbrun finishing in fifth at 2:09.99 and junior Julia Sepulveda finishing in sixth at 2:10.21.
The Huskies took back-to-back top-five finishes in the 400-meter medley relay. The team of Schegoleva, Julia Alvarez, Alli Gielowski and Adriana Sepulveda finished third with a time of 3:54.02. Dana Schleif, McClernan, DeMunbrun and Megan Foran finished fourth in 3:55.39.
In the 100-meter breaststroke, Alvarez, McClearly and freshman Taylor Brew took second, third and fourth places respectively.
Schegoleva finished in second in the 100-meter backstroke at 57.47 and 200-meter backstroke at 2:05.42.
Junior Candace Young took third place in the one meter diving with a score of 196.45, and took third in the three meter diving with 213.35.
The Huskies picked up their only win of the meet in the 200-meter breaststroke when McClernan finished at 2:20.78. Alvarez finished in third and Brew swam to a fifth place finish in that event also.
The Huskies finished the meet on a high note with Foran, Julia Sepulveda, Becherer, and Adriana Sepulveda getting third place in the 400-meter freestyle relay with a time of 2:39.06.
“We’ve done better than last year,” Keary McClernan said. “We have been working a lot harder and everyone’s exhausted but we can’t think about it. It’s been tough to maintain our energy level.”
The Huskies next competition is Nov. 15 in Chapel Hill, N.C., at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where they will compete for the Nike Cup.
“We’re trying to step up the level of competition by going to an [Atlantic Coast Conference] school,” Coates said. “UNC is a top-15 team in the country, so we’ll really have to step up our level of competition.”
The Huskies are looking forward to the competition, even though they know it’s going to be a tough weekend.
“It’s going to be tough to not be a little psyched out for UNC,” McClernan said. “They’re a top team in the country, and we aren’t, but I think we can compete with them. We will be competing against Old Dominion again. The format is a little different for tournament, since we’re competing against other teams also, and we have sore depth in some events, so we hope to get the better of them.”
