The Northeastern University swimming and diving team beat Boston University 175-120, improving their season record to 2-1.
Masses of fans, donning black ‘Beat BU’ t-shirts as part of a promotion, packed Barletta Natatorium Wednesday night. The crowd was larger than normal and gave the Huskies an extra energy boost at the beginning of the meet.
“I guess [the t-shirts] were a good incentive,” fourth-year Jacquelyn Gover said. “It’s nice to see people come and support us. A lot of times we don’t get that so we do appreciate it when we see a packed stand.”
The Huskies won in commanding fashion, finishing first in 13 of the 16 events and clinching the victory before the last two events.
While the Huskies outperformed BU in terms of points, the meet was highlighted by marked improvements by individual athletes across a number of events.
The Huskies posted season-best times in a number of events, including third-year Carly Schnabel and fourth-year Sara Touchette-McGowan in the 200-yard freestyle and first-year Klara Juliussonn in the 100-yard breaststroke.
The diving team also showcased significant progress, sweeping both diving events. Fourth-years Alyssa Seales, Gover and first-year Sabrina Chan all posted season-high scores.
Head coach Roy Coates said he was pleased with the team’s clear growth, noting that during the season, their progress does not necessarily always show up in the official times.
“[The improvement] is usually not linear, it usually goes back and forth and fluctuates,” Coates said.
Coates attributed the team’s development thus far to their strong work ethic.
“It’s a testament that we have so many people working hard and they’re doing it as a group,” Coates said.
The meet against BU served as a dress rehearsal for the team before one of their most important meets of the season, the Frank Elm Invitational at Rutgers University, which starts Nov. 17.
“We’re feeling good going into Rutgers. We’re working hard so it was nice to see it pay off,” Gover said. “It was nice to set a precedent going into our biggest meet of midseason because we’re going to be up against a lot of really good teams.”
Coates said he feels like his group is ready and feeling good before their first important invitational meet of the long season.
“I assume they have lots of confidence,” Coates said.
What remains to be seen is whether the team’s confidence level and improvement thus far will translate to the hyper-competitive, high-pressure invitational meet.
