By Jessica Geller, deputy sports editor
Three Northeastern University swimming records were broken during the Frank Elm Invitational meet against 11 universities at Rutgers University on Nov. 21-23.
With a team of 21 Huskies, Northeastern gained the lead after day one and never looked back, finishing with 1,553 total points among the swimmers and divers.
“Swimming with a lead definitely helped the team,” Head Coach Roy Coates said. “We talk about getting off to a really good start. Your momentum from the beginning [helps] in winning the meet.”
Freshman Sara Touchette-McGowan was named Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Swimmer of the Week after the competition, breaking two individual school records and assisting in setting four team records.
“I was excited,” Touchette-McGowan said. “I wasn’t expecting anything. There were other people that swam very well at that meet, so I’m surprised that I was picked from all the people.”
Touchette-McGowan started off the meet strong with a win in the 50-yard freestyle over University of Idaho senior Erica Anderson. Her 23:47 time was 0.10 seconds faster than the previous NU record set by Erica Smotrycz at the 2009 CAA Championships. On the third day of competition, Touchette-McGowan swam the 100 freestyle B final and finished first in the race, ninth overall, with a time of 51.25. Her pace set a new Northeastern record, beating Kathrine Fugge’s 51.43 set from the 2008 CAA Championships.
She said she was not expecting to do this well in the freestyle, as the 100-yard butterfly, in which she placed sixth, is her specialty.Touchette-McGowan said she views the CAA recognition as a good source of motivation to train harder in the pool. The Dorval, Canada native swam four relays: 200-yard freestyle relay (second place), 400-yard medley relay (first place), 200-yard medley relay (first place) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (first place).
“It was really awesome to be part of [the relay teams],” Touchette-McGowan said. “It’s really awesome when you are behind the block, the adrenaline is all there. You can feel it in the atmosphere. Swimming with the three girls is awesome because they are really awesome teammates and I just love them all.”
Northeastern’s 400-yard freestyle relay team of freshmen Touchette-McGowan and Samira Hoesl and seniors Anna Schegoleva and Jessica Colucci set a new school record time of 3:26.08 to secure the invitational title. Coates has spoken numerous times about utilizing each swimmer’s full potential by changing lineups and not keeping anything set in stone. Even with a record time, the coach said he could still see room for change.
“There’s a lot of really great people on our team, so nothing is locked in,” Coates said. “We have a team full of really great swimmers.”
Schegoleva showed fish-like form throughout the meet. She placed second in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:01.98, second in the 100-yard backstroke (54.81) and second in the 200-yard backstroke (1:58.53). In the 100-yard butterfly race, she powered through in 55.42 for third place.
The 100-yard breaststroke final was a nail biter, with the top three swimmers finishing within 11 hundredths of a second of each other. Samira Hoesl touched the wall first in 1:03.02. Teammate Taylor Ellis was on her heels, coming in at 1:03.08. Central Connecticut State University freshman Maddy Garber stopped the timer at 1:03.13.
On the diving board, freshman Caroline Gonsalves scored the most points for NU, improving her preliminary dive scores in the finals. She dove for 280.40 from the one-meter board to secure second place. Freshmen Jacquelyn Gover and Alyssa Seales placed fifth and seventh, respectively. In the three-meter diving event, Gonsalves scored 255.75, for third place. Gover followed right behind Gonsalves. Junior Megan Rutter placed sixth, and Seales landed the last top-eight spot.
The next meet is Jan. 10 against Drexel University and the University of Delaware. Meanwhile, the swimming and diving team will travel to Ponce, Puerto Rico in two weeks for the team’s annual training trip. Midway through the season, Coates thinks very highly of the 2014-15 team.
“The surprise is that everyone is so in-tuned [sic] to the program,” Coates said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had the vast majority of the team performing at such a high level. Normally, some people develop later in the year, but right now everyone is firing on full cylinders.”
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
