By Bailey Knecht, sports editor
Following a superb 2013-2014 season, the Northeastern swimming and diving team took to the pool for the first regular meet of a new season on Saturday.
The meet took place during Northeastern Parent & Family Weekend, attracting relatives to Barletta Natatorium to watch the team beat the University of New Hampshire (UNH) 161-119.
“It was great competing with [UNH], because they are a really good team,” Head Coach Roy Coates said. “We’ve gotten better. We’ve been chasing them for a few years in talent, and this year we just happened to be a more talented team than them, and we were in good position to beat them.”
Last season, Northeastern came close to finishing in the top five teams at the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championships, but fell short by less than four points.
Following a strong performance at the preseason meet at Harvard University, sophomore transfer Taylor Ellis led the team against UNH, winning the 100-meter breaststroke as well as the 500 freestyle. Senior co-captain Anna Schegoleva had similar success, winning both the 100 and 200 backstroke events.
“It’s really exciting,” Ellis said. “I’m really excited for what this conference holds, and it’s been really great so far.”
Ellis, who transferred to Northeastern from Virginia Polytechnic Institute this year, said she is fitting in perfectly with the team.
“They’ve been really welcoming, which is really nice,” she said. “Everyone’s been super supportive, so they’ve been really good so far.”
The greatest success for the Huskies came from the diving team, which beat UNH 32-6 and swept both the 3-meter and the 1-meter events. Freshman Caroline Gonsalves scored a 269.20 to take home the 1-meter win.
Fellow freshman Jacquelyn Gover won the 3-meter event with a score of 252.25, followed by junior Megan Rutter in second.
Coates praised both the new and seasoned divers after the meet.
“We have three freshmen on the boards in addition to Megan Rutter, who’s the leader of the group…so we have great leadership,” he said. “And we have three really talented freshman divers who have joined Megan.”
Freshmen make up a large portion of this year’s team and have already made a big impact, according to Coates.
“We lost a lot of seniors [last year], so we had to bring a lot of bodies in, and we were fortunate that they’ve acclimated themselves well to the university and to our program, and they’re really talented,” he said. “We have different strengths and different weaknesses now, but overall, I’d say we have a great influx of talent, and they seem to have really done well with getting used to Northeastern and our swimming and diving program.”
A number of results were determined by less than a second, such as the 100 and 200 freestyle events. Freshman Sara Touchette-McGowan fell to UNH freshman Liza Baykova by 0.11 seconds in the 200, then missed first place again just 0.08 seconds behind Baykova in the 100.
Later, the Huskies swept the 100 butterfly top-three, led by Touchette-McGowan, sophomore Delaney Lanker and senior Erica DeMunbrun.
Despite the Huskies’ success, Ellis still noticed a few areas that could be improved.
“I think we could have a little bit more cheering,” she said. “And we’re working on warming up and warming down better, which I think helped today especially. We had a structured warm-up and warm-down, which proved that it worked out.”
The team will travel to Virginia for a two-day meet at George Mason University this weekend.
Photo courtesy Mike Skovan
