The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineers (0-2, 0-0 NEWMAC) hosted the Harvard Crimson (0-0, 0-0 Ivy League) and the Northeastern Huskies (3-1, 0-0 CAA) Friday, Oct. 24 at the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center. The Huskies ended the meet 161-136 to take the win over MIT but fell to Harvard with a score of 223-75.
The Huskies fought hard against Harvard, which used the matchup as a scrimmage. The Crimson, who finished second at Ivy League championships last year and had two individual swims in the top 20 at Division I NCAAs, were a difficult opponent. Harvard had wins all around, beating the MIT women 238-61 and the MIT men 216-79.
MIT was a more even match up for the Huskies, who were winless against the Engineers for two years before pulling out Friday’s win.
The meet started off with a strong showing from the Huskies in the 200-yard medley relay, with the “A” relay consisting of sophomore Delaney Alonso, graduate student Elisabeth Bendall, freshman Alexandra Fuller and junior May Bradburn taking third behind two teams from Harvard.
Freshman Abigail Gowern repeated the performance for Northeastern, taking third in a time of 10:29.74 in the 1,000-yard freestyle.
The team struggled slightly in the 200-yard freestyle, with the top performance coming from freshman Siena Griffiths (1:54.46), who touched fifth. The second Husky, freshman Eliana Auerbach (1:57.05), touched seventh, and sophomore Peyton Knightly (2:02.08) touched 10th.
Northeastern continued to work hard going into the 100-yard backstroke, with Alonso (57.84) taking fourth and freshman Sophie Bromley (57.91) finishing fifth right behind her.
In the 100-yard breaststroke, Northeastern struggled again. The top finish was a touch in fifth place by freshman Marea Li (1:07.06), followed by Bendall in sixth (1:07.27) and freshman Alexandra Campion (1:07.88) in eighth.
Like last weekend when it competed with the University of Rhode Island, Northeastern struggled in the 200-yard fly, with freshman Rory Keller (2:09.30) taking fourth and sophomore Kate Kerber (2:13.63) taking eighth.
Junior Mary Nordmann (23.78) had one of the strongest showings of the meet in the 50-yard freestyle, taking second and being beaten only by Harvard senior Syndey Lu (23.33). Senior Kotoko Blair (24.08) finished fourth, and junior May Bradburn (24.09) finished in fifth for an overall excellent showing for the Huskies.
Northeastern’s sprinters did not repeat that performance in the 100-yard freestyle. Despite the top finish by Fuller coming in second (51.08), the next Northeastern finishers were Nordmann in eighth (52.90) and Kotoko in ninth (53.69).
The team bounced back in the 200-yard backstroke with Bromley (2:05.73) taking third, followed by Alonso (2:07.94) taking fourth.
The breaststrokers struggled again in the 200-yard breaststroke with Li (2:24.74) taking fourth nearly six seconds behind the winner, and Bendall (2:27.01) taking fifth nearly three seconds behind her. Freshman Celia Traub (2:30.41) rounded it out for the Huskies, taking seventh.
The team then took on the 500-yard freestyle; the top finish was freshman Abigail Gowern (5:07.79) taking sixth, Griffiths (5:12.54) taking seventh and Auerbach (5:16.71) taking eighth.
Fuller continued her own successful meet with a second place finish in the 100-yard butterfly touching 55.03. Bradburn (56.38) finished close behind in fourth.
The 200-yard individual medley was another difficult event for the Huskies, with the top finish being Campion (2:08.23), who finished fourth nearly three seconds behind the third place Harvard freshman Hazel Mouhidin. The next Northeastern finish came from Li (2:11.13) in seventh followed by Bromley (2:12.46) in ninth.
In the final swimming event, Northeastern had its strongest performance of the meet, taking first in the 200-yard freestyle relay in a time of 1:34.04. The team consisted of Fuller, Blair, Nordmann and Bradburn, who out-touched the Harvard “A” relay team by just .35 seconds. The Northeastern “B” relay team (1:39.99), consisting of Kerber, Auerbach, Alonso and Griffiths, and the “C” relay team (1:42.96), made up of Knightly, senior Anna Verlander, Keller and senior Marcela Scaramuzza, were slightly less successful, taking seventh and ninth, respectively.
In diving, which occurred simultaneously in MIT’s Olympic-size pool, freshman Kailyn Aquino (237.75) took sixth in the 1-meter as the only Husky competing. Aquino also finished ninth in the 3-meter with a score of 229.85, followed by senior Anelise Kim (213.50).
Strong relay performances and standout swims from freshmen like Fuller and Gowern highlighted the team’s growing potential despite challenges in the breaststroke and weak performances in diving.
The team will hit the road to take on the other Huskies at the University of Connecticut (0-1, 0-1 Big East) on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 12 p.m.
