By Chris Judd, News Staff
Northeastern swimming and diving lost to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst 158-142 in a Colonial Athletic Association dual meet on Saturday. Additionally, the Huskies placed sixth out of eight teams in the Nike Tournament which took place from Nov.15-17.
Northeastern is now 1-4 overall and 1-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).
“The Nike Cup was a great meet,” head coach Roy Coates said. “We saw some top 20 teams in the country who are all in the upper echelon of D-1 schools, and we were able to compete against them.”
The Nike Cup was one of the few tournaments in which Northeastern competed against out of conference teams.
“I’m happy with the Nike Cup,” junior Alli Gielowski said. “It was nice to have different competition. It set us up to get ready for the champions.”
While the Nike Tournament was seen as a success, the team was hoping to beat UMass at the CAA meet.
“We could have done better as a team,” Gielowski said. “It was a good learning experience, but we swam as if we were tired from a hard week of practice, but that’s not an excuse.”
Though the team didn’t come together for a win, some swimmers had standout individual performances. Sophomore Anna Schegoleva won four events. She started off by winning the 200-meter medley relay with junior Julia Alvarez, senior Kelley Becherer and Gielowski with a time of 1:48.46. The team of senior Nicole Collucci, senior Keary McClernan, sophomore Erica DeMunbrun and senior Chelsea Lim with a time of 1:51.33.
Schegoleva also won the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 58.99, while Junior Dana Schleif finished in third with a time of 1:01.09. Schegoleva also won the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 2:06.39, which was three seconds faster than any of the competition. She swam to her final win in the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2:09.17. Junior Julia Sepulveda finished just behind her in second place with a time of 2:10.77.
Alvarez also had a big day for the Huskies. In addition to being on the winning medley relay team, she won the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:05.82. McClernan finished second in the event with a time of 1:07.68. McClernan and Alvarez were also the top two finishes in the 200-meter breaststroke with times of 2:23.66 and 2:24.57 respectively.
The 200-meter butterfly was the closest event of the match, with Gielowski taking second by less than a quarter of a second. Junior Julia Sepulveda finished half a second behind her for a third place finish.
Becherer took second in the 50-meter free with a time of 25.17, her best time of the year.
In diving, freshman Megan Rutter took second in the three-meter dive with 221.69 points. Junior Candace Young was the Husky’s top scorer in the one-meter dive with a score of 215.18, which was good for fourth place.
“Megan did compete at the Nike Cup also, but this was her first dual meet,” Coates said. “I had no expectations for her since I haven’t seen her compete before, and I was surprised at her performance. I am glad to have her back.”
The Huskies will go to Puerto Rico for a training trip from Dec. 28 to Jan. 5. After that, their next meet will be against University of Delaware and Drexel University on Jan. 12 in Philadelphia.
“It’s common for D-1 schools in the Northeast to do training trips because the campus is empty, and it’s a better environment,” Coates said. “They’ll have a lot of intensive training specifically for aerobic training. We’re also going to do some speed work, and evaluate what else we have to do down the stretch.”
