The Boston University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams continued their impressive seasons Sunday, when both squads defeated Dartmouth College. The men kept their unbeaten season alive, improving to 7-0 with a 159-130 victory. Meanwhile, the women defeated the Big Green, 166.5-125.5, to advance their record to 8-1.
In the men’s first race, BU’s team of freshmen Jackson Hill and Daniel Kempf and sophomore duo Kyle Ernst and Matthew Rickett won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:35.26. The relay team set the tone for dominant performances in the individual events.
Ernst won two races of his own with a time of 27.75 seconds in the 50-yard breaststroke and 4:46.15 in the 500-yard freestyle. Hill also had two individual victories, one in the 50-yard free (21.44) and one in the 100-yard free (46.76). Junior Arik Seiler, the Terriers’ MVP last season, added to the winnings with a victory in the 200-yard free (1:43.55).
In the diving portion of the match, sophomore Tanner Knorr finished first in the 3-meter dive with a score of 347.33.’ Dartmouth freshman Chris Plante won the 1-meter diving event with a score of 313.73.
Dartmouth’s other individual wins on the men’s side came in the 1,000-yard free (junior Cory Stathopoulos, 10:03.13) and 100-yard individual medley relay (senior Andrew Ballentine, 55.47). Freshman Mickey Ahern added victories in the 50-yard backstroke (25.09) and 100-yard backstroke (52.81).
For the Terrier women, a victory in the first race paved the way for a lopsided day, with BU winning 12 of 14 individual events. The winning team of that first race, the 200-yard medley relay, consisted of Francesca Ferrante, Kristen Connors, Eve Kinsella, and Maria McIntyre, and finished in 1:49.47.’
Connors continued her strong rookie year by winning the 50-yard breaststroke (30.86) and 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.66). Kinsella and junior Emily Munday also added two victories apiece. Kinsella won the 100-yard free (52.83) and 200-yard free (1:54.29), while Munday placed first in the 50-yard butterfly (26.64) and 100-yard butterfly (57.59).
Junior Brigette O’Shaughnessy dominated the 1,000-yard free with a BU record-breaking time of 10:13.89, more than four seconds faster than the previous record holder. O’Shaughnessy finished a whopping 24 seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer.
In diving, BU senior Tess Waresmith won the 1-meter event with a score of 348.00. Dartmouth captured the other diving win in the 3-meter event with a score of 287.40 by Erica Serpico. The Darmouth women’s only other individual win came in the 100-yard IM with a 1:02.89 finish by Maddie Steiner.
After having two meets in back-to-back days, the BU women’s team gets a fairly long break before resuming action against Boston College on Feb. 3 at the BU Competition Pool. The men’s next meet will be this Saturday vs. Tufts University at the BU Competition Pool at 1 p.m.’ However, this match is split into diving-only on Saturday, and the swimming events will be held on Sunday at Tufts.
