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BY BEN RAPHEL

In print | Published December 1, 2005

The women’s swim team lost a rough home opener at Ware Pool on Nov. 19 to NYU, 135-70. The Garnet could not match up to the Violets, who are currently ranked third in the nation. Yet the women came back three days later to drown Ursinus, 135-111, in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. In both meets, Franny Zhang ’08 led the team by winning two individual events.

The Ursinus Bears proved to be little competition for Swarthmore, which was victorious in nine of the 14 events. Zhang and Whitney Nekoba ’08 led the Garnet with two individual victories each. Zhang continued her spectacular season by finishing first in both the longest and shortest events, the 1,000-yard freestyle (11 minutes, 23.76 seconds) and 50-yard freestyle (26.30).

“Franny doesn’t like doing the 1,000 free, but her time was top-ten in the conference,” Jennie Lewis ‘08 said of her teammate’s performance.

Nekoba won the 200-yard freestyle in 2:02.07, only three-tenths of a second ahead of the second-place Ursinus swimmer. Later, Nekoba won the 100-yard freestyle in a time of 57.49.

“We got to try different events in this meet,” Lewis said, “and we had fun winning for the first time in a while.” Co-coach Mike Dudley added that the order of events was changed, allowing each swimmer to participate in more events than would be possible in a usual dual meet.

Other individual winners for the Garnet included Laura Rainey ’09 and Patricia Funk ’06. Rainey won the 100-yard backstroke, finishing in a time of 1:05.17, while Rainey finished first in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:36.41.

Janice Yeo ’07 won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:14.32, and Veronica Medina ’07 took first in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:24.50. Swarthmore also finished first in the 200-yard medley relay. The relay team, which consisted of Martyna Pospieszalska ’06, Stacey Prow ’06, Lewis and Funk, finished in an impressive time of 1:59.43.

Unfortunately, the Garnet did not fare as well against NYU. Though the Violets nearly doubled Swarthmore’s point total, the Garnet swimmers did have some standout moments.

“We were trying to match up people more for good swims than trying to win the team score,” Dudley said.

Zhang won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 2:15.9 and the 100-yard freestyle in 55.23. Zhang teamed up with Lewis, Nekoba and Funk to win the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:46.69. This foursome has been “very consistent” in this relay so far this season, according to Dudley.

“I know that NYU is a really good team, so I was surprised, but happy about my performance,” Zhang said.

Zhang is also pleased with the team’s progress so far this season. “We’ve been competing really well, and holding it together after tough losses,” she said. “We’ve been training hard, which has helped to maintain the level that we’re currently at.”

Swarthmore’s final competition of the semester will be this weekend at the Franklin & Marshall Invitational. The team has high expectations for this meet, and hopes to improve on its tenth-place finish from last season. The three-day event consists of four sessions, one of which will be made up entirely of distance events.

“We are hoping to finish in the top three for all the relays, but top-five would also be acceptable,” Lewis said.

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