As she stepped down on to the deck at her first collegiate swim meet against Boston University, freshman Elena Alvarez was nervous.
“Actually [very] nervous. It’s very different from high school. I was standing on the deck when they were playing the national anthem, just trying to take it all in,” said the San Anselmo, Calif. native.
The nerves didn’t seem to be a factor though, as Alvarez competed in a relay and three individual events, finishing third or higher in all of them, earning her Northeastern News Player of the Week honors.
She set a new school record in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:20.86 beating Kristen Kane’s 2003 record of 2:20.98.
“I knew going into the season that my best times were competitive with the record, but I didn’t expect to break the record in my first meet,” Alvarez said. “I also was more ready for the 100-yard [breaststroke]. I heard the girl racing the 200 was really good and I was shocked when I looked at the board.”
Alvarez placed first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a final time of 1:05.44 and third in the 200-yard individual medley (IM) at 2:13.45. She was also a member of the first place 200-yard medley relay (1:50.61) with freshman Alexandra Doty, sophomore Kara Lane and senior Emily Crookall-Nixon.
“The breaststroke is my best event and we have a lot of girls talented in the butterfly but I just tried to step into the individual medley and do my best. I can win the breaststroke and just do okay in the IM,” she said.
Her four events earned the team 32 of it’s final 164.5 points, which was good enough to beat BU’s 135.5. Northeastern took first place in nine of the 16 events that day.
“I think we underestimated them before we got there. But when we showed up they had a board that projected who would win each race and they had themselves winning the meet,” Alvarez said.
In high school Alvarez was an All- American in the breaststroke at Sir Francis Drake High School (San Anselmo) from 2003-05. She was also named MVP all four years she competed.
– Compiled by staff writer Erika Carrubba.
