By Jessica Geller, deputy sports editor
The Northeastern swimming and diving teams only have one commonality: they share the same water. But when it comes to winning meets, both scores matter. Despite Northeastern’s diving team earning the win over Brown University, the swimming team came up short last Friday in Providence with a 136-107 loss.
The divers, led by freshman trio Caroline Gonsalves, Jacquelyn Gover and Alyssa Seales, looked to improve on their third place finishes in the 1-meter and 3-meter events from last weekend’s quad meet at George Mason University.
“This week in practice, we tried to clean up their dives and work on their entries,” diving coach Lauren Colby said. “In the past, we had been working on their hurdles and takeoff. We switched focus [because] they’ve been getting better height and takeoff.”
In the 1-meter diving event, Gonsalves dove a 243.07 for first place, earning nine points towards the overall team score. First through fifth place earned nine, four, three, two and one points, respectively. Gover followed Gonsalves with a 242.93, gaining four points. Seales landed a 215.93 for one extra point.
Gover gained nine points with her 253.57 dive in the 3-meter competition. Seales placed third with 248.18, and Gonsalves was fourth with 228.98.
“My dives were pretty consistent, which is definitely a key in diving,” Gover said. “I worked a lot on my entries this week and they improved.”
Colby,in her first year as the diving coach, previously coached at Marywood University and did not expect the freshmen to be leading the team. The diving team decisively beat Brown, 28-10.
“I feel very lucky and blessed that we’ve had such a great freshman class,” Colby said. “They are looking very strong this year, so I’m very happy with how they have competed this year.”
The swimming team pushed strongly off the blocks with the 200-yard medley relay. Head Coach Roy Coates added freshman Christine Leong to swim the backstroke leg. The change benefitted Northeastern as Leong, sophomore Taylor Ellis, freshman Sara Touchette-McGowan and sophomore Rachel Green finished in 1:45.12, one second ahead of Brown’s A-team.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team did not put up as a strong a showing as it did the week before. The four women, senior Anna Schegoleva, freshman Samira Hoesl, senior Megan Foran and Green, finished in 3:35.85, nine seconds slower than Brown’s time.
“At Brown, we moved people around to see what they can do,” Coates said. “It’s a Catch-22. We need to learn as much as we can about all the swimmers [by letting] them swim other events to see what they can do. If we always go with the same lineup, then we are left with the question of ‘what if?’”
While an overall team win is desired each week, the end goal is winning championships. These races are all about finding the best combination of swimmers in the relays, according to Coates.
Earning wins in a variety of races, Ellis and Schegoleva have shown great flexibility this season, Coates said. Schegoleva tapped the wall first in the 200-yard Individual Medley, finishing in 2:07.38. She earned another nine points in the 200-yard backstroke race, swimming in 2:05.01. Leong trailed her teammate with a 2:07.34 for second place. With the two wins this weekend, Schegoleva has five individual event wins this season.
Ellis finished first in the 200-yard breaststroke race. Her season-best time of 2:20.42 was five seconds ahead of Brown’s freshman Katie Roach.
The swimming and diving team next compete in the Frank Elm Invitational at Rutgers University on Friday, Nov. 21 against seven other universities.
“Rutgers is going to be unique because it’s a three-day meet,” Colby said. “It’s the same format as championships so it’ll be a good meet.”
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
