By Jodie Ng, news staff
The Northeastern women’s swimming and diving team travelled to Philadelphia, Pa. last weekend to go head to head with Colonial Athletic Association rivals: the University of Delaware and Drexel University.
The Huskies pulled a 152-147 win against the host team, theDrexel Dragons, but fell to the Delaware Blue Hens, 189-111. Overall, the squad won three out of 16 events, with a total of 14 top-three finishes.
According to senior co-captain Jessica Colucci, this year’s team performance was better than last year’s.
“It was a tough meet,” Colucci said. “It came down to the wire with Drexel which was new for us since it usually came down to the wire with Delaware, so it was a different change of pace but the girls got up and they stepped up and did what they had to do in order to beat them.”
The Huskies opened the meet with seniorsErica DeMunbrunand co-captain Anna Schegoleva and sophomores Taylor Ellis and Rachel Greencompeting in the 200 medley relay. Northeastern swam a time of 1:46:25, only falling slightly shortof Drexel’s time of 1:45:77.
Schegoleva, who set two national records in December at the 2014 FINA World Swimming Championships, gave the Huskies a victory in the 100 and 200 backstroke with times of 57.11 and 2:03:07, respectively.
Freshman divers Jacquelyn Gover, Caroline Gonsalves and Alyssa Seales placed third, fourth and fifth respectively overall in the 1-meter dive. Junior diver Megan Rutter placed seventh.
Nearthe end of the meet, Northeastern outscored the Dragons with the help of DeMunbrun and freshman Sara Touchette-McGowanin the 100 butterfly with times of59.09 and 56.94, respectively.
The Huskies continued to defend their lead in the final two events as Schegoleva and Ellis beat Drexel in the 200 IM. The meet concluded with the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:40:63 by senior co-captain Megan Foran, Green, Colucci and DeMunbrun.
Northeastern will host the University of Vermont on Jan. 17 at Barletta Natatorium, marking the last home meet of the season.
“We have a really strong team this year. We got lots of talent,” Schegoleva said. “We don’t want to jinx it but we’re hoping it’s going to be our best year. We’re hoping to break more records at championships and move a couple places up.”
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
