We had back-to-back meets this past weekend. Friday evening we were away against Washington & Lee. Saturday afternoon we were home against Emory & Henry and Hollins. Though we had the same swimmers at both meets, it was as if two different teams showed up to swim for R-MC on Friday and Saturday.
At Friday's meet, W&L defeated us 156-102. The highlight of the meet for us was sweeping the relay events. The 200 Medley team of Hallie Stewart, Kellianne Mullin, Shafer Busch, and Sarah Almond took the win in another solid time of 1:54.35. The 400 Free Relay team of Lizzy Buckley, Laura Belch, Marlene Graf, and Sarah finished off the meet with the W in 3:48.22. In between those wins, we fought hard but just didn't have the energy and enthusiasm necessary to get up and race against a tough team like W&L. Lesson: Swimmers who are tight and nervous don't race to their potential. Swimmers who are loose, energetic, and positive will compete at the level they are capable of.
After our post-meet team discussion, I was expecting a different group to show up to the meet on Saturday and bring some fire, and I wasn't disappointed. Team R-MC was much more relaxed on Saturday, and that led to a much better meet. For this one, we played around with the lineup and put some people in "nontraditional" events for themselves. The results showed a balanced team effort, as the women defeated both Hollins and Emory & Henry, taking both relays and grabbing 8 individual wins from 8 different swimmers.
Here were the event winners:
200 Medley Relay: Stewart, Mullin, Busch, Almond – 1:55.12
1000 Free: Tracy Spurrier – 12:16.45
200 Free: Laura Belch – 2:04.11
50 Free: Marlene Graf – 26.39
200 IM: Kellianne Mullin – 2:19.47
100 Fly: Lizzy Buckley – 1:05.98
100 Free: Ellie Shea – 58.40
500 Free: Meredith Walters – 5:59.78
100 Breast: Hallie Stewart – 1:14.16
200 Free Relay: Buckley, Belch, Busch, Almond – 1:44.60
Next up is a Friday afternoon home dual meet against St. Mary's College of Maryland. It should be a close meet. Last year, we dropped a 109-96 decision to St. Mary's at their pool. We'll be looking to reverse that result this season.
Click here to view the 400 Freestyle Relay from the W&L meet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BasYmnvEmGA
