Photo by Amanda Boyer
By Hailli Woo
Staff Writer
On Wednesday Washington College Women’s Swim Team hosted Swarthmore for a Centennial Conference match inside the Casey Swim Center. With the final score of 128-77, Swarthmore improved to 4-4 overall and 2-3 in the conference with their win, whereas WC fell to 5-4 and 1-4 with the loss.
Senior Ellie Miskiel was the key cog in the machine for the Shorewomen on Wednesday. She won the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 55.61 and the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:10.56.
Freshman Ellen Maxwell finished her part with the 1,000 yard freestyle in a winning time of 11:19:54 and received second in the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 2:02.16 and the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 1:03.05. Senior Carly Ogren claimed a third first place win with her 500 yard freestyle in 5:28.78. Ogren also placed second in her 50 yard freestyle with a time of 25.71.
Ellie Miskiel said, “I think for Swat our expectation going in was that we were going to have some really close races and that it was the last home meet of the season, which is always a fun and exciting meet.”
Close races they certainly were Coach Kim Lessard said, “[our] women know Swat is a very good team led by an All-American, but they had a great attitude and wanted to improve their own times”.
Even through the devastating last home meet loss, Miskiel said, “There isn’t anything I would change. Swarthmore is a very good and [a] challenging team to swim against. This meet was an opportunity for us to focus on our races and rehearse them for how we want to swim them at champs.”
Coach Lessard said, “The meet was very successful from a personal times goal. There were many season best times.”
The Shorewomen have a chance to redeem themselves Saturday at 1 p.m. in a Centennial Conference meet at Ursinus.
Miskiel said, “The Ursinus meet falls about three weeks from Champs and is a long and short meet so it gives us a chance to focus on the little details of a lot of the races we will be swimming in three weeks as well as getting pumped for the final stretch of the season.”
Though the Shorewomen fell by a large margin to the Ursinus Bears, they only fell to .500 on the season. They have the ability to execute a winning season should they defeat the McDaniel Green Terror in Westminsteron Saturday, Feb. 8.
Regardless of their outcome, they will have improved on last year’s 3-8 record. Similar to the men’s team, their success has trended upwards.
The Shorewomen have had a strong season, and there is a continual strength that will surely follow them throughout the remainder of the season.
As they prepare for Champs, look for them to make a big splash in the conference.