The Boston University women’s swim team had a strong start to its season despite its 173-124 loss to conference champion Northeastern University at BU’s Ben and Charlotte Aquatic Center on Saturday.
The close loss was a clear indicator of the improvement BU’s team has made compared to its 206-94 loss last year to the Huskies.
“They are the conference leaders and have been for three years,” said Coach Reagh Wettmore. “We stayed with them and there were a lot of close races.”
“I think we really did well overall,” said sophomore Hilary Habershaw. “[Northeastern is] a hard team but we held our ground. We had good freshmen that helped us this year because last year we were lacking. They really helped us out.”
The Terriers had a strong showing from their freshman swimmers in their first meet at Terriers.
Freshman Meagan Breiland won the 100-meter freestyle race with a time of 0:53:06. Wettmore said it was the best time the Terriers have had in that event years. Freshman Natalie Boyd also put in a strong performance in the 200-meter freestyle.
Diver Sylvia Golle dominated in both the one-meter and three-meter diving competition. She won first place in both events, with 324.37 points in the one-meter and 306.15 in the three-meter. She also came one point from breaking the team record in the 3-meter competition.
“Our divers were excellent, especially Sylvia Golle,” Wettmore said. “She was tremendous, and she’ll probably be on the national team this year.”
Junior diver Stacey Gallacher rounded out the top three with third place in the one-meter diving.
“I felt confident with my dives today,” Gallacher said. “This is one of the most consistent meets I’ve had, especially in the beginning of the year. I was very impressed with our team overall this year. They’re going to be really one of the best teams we’ve had. This will be a solid year.”
BU also brought in first place in the 200-meter individual medley and second place in the 200-meter backstroke and 200-meter breast stroke.
But Wettmore said he saw some room for improvement.
“I can see we need more work with turns,” he said. “They didn’t have that snap in their turns. That’s how they got beaten.”
BU will next be in action on Nov. 2, when both the men and the women travel to the University of New Hampshire.