Wesleyan Places 9th in NESCAC Championships Led by Cara Madden '11 with Two Backstroke Records
Bowdoin served as host for the NESCAC women's swimming & diving championships Fri.-Sun., Feb. 20-22. There, Wesleyan placed ninth of 11 squads with a total of 659 points.
Wesleyan had three individuals come through with a pair of top-eight finishes each. Leading the way was Cara Madden '11 (main photo), who placed fourth in both the 50-yard backstroke (:27.65) and 100-yard backstroke (:59.36). Both her times were Wesleyan school records. Diver Naima Ford '11 (photo insert, upper right) took sixth in the three-meter dive (373.00) and eighth in the one-meter dive (332.70). Janine Zaltsman '11 (photo insert lower right) showed her versatility by placing seventh in the 100-yard freestyle (:53.23) and eighth in the 50-yard butterfly (:26.87). Her time of :53.08 in the 100 free preliminaries broke the Wesleyan program record.
Wesleyan's 200-yard freestyle relay of Madden, Agnes Koczo '09, Emily Kodis '11 and Zaltsman shattered the program record by more than half a second with their time of 1:39.59.
Another top finish for the Cardinals came from Amelia Lupinetti '11 with a ninth-place showing in the 400-yard individual medley while Caitlin Bethlahmy '09 had two strong distance freestyle efforts as she ended up 11th in the 1000-yard event and 12th in the 1650-yard swim.
This event concluded action for the bulk of the Cardinals in 2008-09 as the team posted a dual-meet record of 5-5 and was 10-5 overall.
Madden, Zaltsman and Lupinetti all produced NCAA "B" cuts during the meet, putting them under consideration for the NCAA Division III Championships to be hosted by the U of Minnesota March 18-21.
