The women’s swimming and diving team took two wins at the Casey Aquatics Center on Friday night, defeating Campbell 164-51 and Gardner-Webb 125-90.
After opening the meet with a first and third finish in the 200-yard medley relay, a group of underclassmen distance swimmers swept the top three spots in the 1000-yard freestyle. Sophomore Lauren Cranston took first in the event followed by freshmen Maresa Like-Mathews and Anna Linkenauger in second and third.
Coach Brooks Teal said he was particularly impressed with the distance group’s effort.
“It was a total team effort,” Teal said. “The ladies in the 1000 free went one, two, three. I felt it was a particularly good job by our distance group.”
Other notable performances from the Pack included a first-place finish by senior captain Kerry Whitson in the 200-yard freestyle. Senior Melissa Jammerino also finished first in the 50-yard freestyle. Sophomore Martha Marino won the 100 butterfly and a trio of State swimmers led by freshman Patrice Dason swept the 100-yard freestyle event.
Teal said the mix of youth and veteran experience helped create the dynamic atmosphere for the wins.
“Senior leadership was very big,” Teal said. “The freshmen didn’t really know what to expect. But it’s nice to see the youthful enthusiasm out there. It really provides a big spark. Our two captains in Lindsay Barwegen and Kerry Whitson did an awesome job of leading the way.”
Also leading the way for the Pack was freshman diver Emily Cheffins who won the 3-meter diving competition followed by junior Natalie Swisher and freshman Chelsea Ale in second and third.
According to sophomore Martha Marino, who won the 100 butterfly, the girls knew what to expect from Campbell and Gardner-Webb, and rised to the challenge with Friday’s victory.
“All of our times and their times are posted so it wasn’t really a secret as to what we have and what everyone else has,” Marino said. “They had a lot of fast girls. We all knew what we had coming for us, but we’re a strong group of girls and right now we’ve got it going for us.”
Marino said that the team’s disciplined training schedule seemed to pay off in the meet and that hard training should help lead to continued success.
“We did really well. We have a solid group of girls and a good group of freshman this year,” she said. “In training we’ve stepped it up quite a bit this year, but we have a lot of room for improvement.”
In an early non-conference meet, Teal said the Pack could have easily overlooked Campbell and Gardner-Webb, but he was pleased with the girls’ effort and enjoyed coaching a meet where he could focus specifically on the women’s strengths and areas of needed improvement
“The possibility was there for them to take these teams lightly and they didn’t. They came out here and raced every race and really took it to them,” Teal said. “And when it was really obvious about half way through the meet that we pretty much had the meet under control, it would have been easy for them to let up then and they didn’t. It was a little better opportunity without the men to really focus on the women and the things we need to work on. I like the focus and intensity that we brought.”
Among those in attendance on Friday was former State standout and current fastest swimmer in the world in the 50-yard freestyle, Cullen Jones. Jones, who is training with the Pack until the 2008 Olympic games, was impressed with his former teammates and newcomers as well.
“The team is coming together great,” Jones said. “We’ve got a lot of fresh blood and they’re doing a tremendous job. The freshmen are really stepping up to help the seniors.”
