HARTFORD, CT (January 15, 2008) -- In a pair of highly competitive and hard fought meets, Vassar's women's and men's swimming and dive teams came up narrowly short against Trinity College this afternoon. The women fought in a tough 124-103 loss, while the men were just five precious points away from a big victory, bowing 123-118. "I am extremely proud of how both teams competed today," said head coach Lisl Prtaer-Lee. "Our teams swam extremely well and deserve a lot of credit for their effort."
Meet recap:
The Vassar men took off with a fast start to the meet by taking 1st and 2nd in the 200 yard medley relay, outscoring Trinity by a margin of 15-2 in the event. During the early part of the meet the teams battled back and forth by event. For example, despite season-best performances by Andrew Yau (11:56.69, 3rd) and Alan Neuhauser (12:16.10, 4th) in the 1000 yd free, Trinity gained ground by taking 1st, 2nd, and 5th. But showing great tenacity the Vassar men fought back in the next few events before the 1-meter diving break, the strongest team event of which was the 200 yard IM (Alaimo, 1st, 2:03.30; Jeremy Shiman, 3rd, 2:11.36; Charlie Kuder, 5th, 2:20.58). In the 100 yd free the Vassar men neutralized Trinity's top sprinter's first place performance by taking 2nd (Joe Zaino, 55.92), 3rd (Jay Um, 56.39), and 4th (Lars LaPann-Johannessen, 56.89), again showing great tenacity.
The Vassar divers added considerably to the team cause by outscoring Trinity's divers 25-13 with Roo Wood breaking his own school record in 1-meter (240.89 points, old record: 234.60 points, 2007), Aaron Lefkowitz diving consistently well on both 1-meter and 3-meter, and Don Pinkus showing considerable improvement from his inaugural (and impressive) 3-meter performance this past weekend.
The 100 yd breaststroke, the last individual event in the meet brought Vassar within striking distance as Tom Liu and Charlie Kuder teamed up for 1st (1:04.63) and 2nd (1:07.74) respectively, outscoring Trinity 13-6 in the event.
The Vassar women took a slight edge early in the meet by taking 1st in the 200 yard medley relay. Keeping that momentum Charley Young (11:31.24, 1st), Stacey Mack (12:00.88, 4th), Ilene Goodman (12:05.61, 5th), and Jess Leng (13:30.83, 6th) teamed up in the 1000 yard free to outscore Trinity 12-7 in the event. In an event that Trinity has much success with this season, Vassar kept the Bantams in check by taking 1st (Emily Love, 1:59.54), 4th (Liz Gadomski, 2:12.73), 5th (Maya Kriet, 2:14.11), and 6th (Maeve McCoy, 2:14.99), all season-best times and again outscoring Trinity by a margin of 12-7. Mid-way through the meet Nyanza Rothman (1st, 1:05.79), Melisa Brower (2nd, 1:06.95), Kriet (6th, 1:11.20), and Alyse Larkin (7th, 1:12.55) teamed up to outscore Trinity 13-6 in the event. The distance crew of Young (1st, 5:42.83), Mack (3rd, 5:46.00), Gadomski (5th, 5:53.13), and McCoy (6th, 6:02.47) teamed up to outscore Trinity once again by a margin of 13-6, giving Vassar a 4-point lead heading into the 3-meter diving. Vassar was unable to answer the 16-point advantage that Trinity gained in diving and and some very fast breaststroke swims. Down by 12 points heading into the final 200 yard free relay, to win the meet Vassar needed to take 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and to tie the meet Vassar needed to take 1st and 2nd, either scenario would be a challenging way to end the day. To their credit Trinity swam a great final relay, taking 1st and 3rd, and securing the win. To Vassar's credit, nine of the twelve women in the event swam season-best 50 yard freestyle splits trying to gain ground on the Trinity swimmers.
“Vassar matched up well with Trinity," said Prater-Lee. "Practically in every event a Vassar competitor had a Trinity competitor to race, which brought out good swims (and dives) on both sides of the pool. I give our team so much credit for getting up and competing so well and realizing where the Trinity swimmers were and really making the effort to go after them or staying ahead of them. We did not go to Trinity to swim personal bests. We went to race and that is exactly what Vassar did.”
