For the third year in a row, the Cornell women’s swimming and diving team kicked off its regular season with a double-duel meet against the Crimson of Harvard and the Big Green of Dartmouth.
Last year, Cornell easily defeated Dartmouth, but lost to Harvard 81-210.
This year was more of the same. The Red easily ran over the Green by nearly 150 points, but just fell short of topping the Crimson, as it lost 176-123.
“It went a lot better than I thought. I have never seen so much energy in my entire Cornell career,” senior tri-captain Brooke Patterson said. “All the girls were ready and excited to swim.”
Sophomore Courtney Tawresey won two individual events, winning both the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:42.73 and the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing in 1:08.22.
Junior Shayne Geneva and sophomore Karen Ching rounded out Cornell’s trio of winning swimmers. Geneva won the 50-yard freestyle, touching the wall in 24.31, and Ching took the 200-yard breaststroke in just 2:26.87.
Jayme Mayjek stood out for the freshman class, finishing first against Dartmouth in the 200-yard butterfly, and second against Harvard.
“Everything went really well, but we need to stay focused during the later races. We were very tired and we need to keep the energy level up,” Patterson remarked.
As for the relays, the team of Ching and juniors Tina Shih, Yoko Shibata, and Heather Dombrady won the only relay for the Red, taking the 400-yard freestyle in 3:38.06.
“It was the most exciting event at Cornell in the last four years,” Patterson said.
Also this week, Dave Sheets was officially named the assistant women’s swimming and diving coach. Sheets has over 11 years coaching experience, and has been the head swimming coach at Butler (Pa.) High School for the past three years.
The Red is off until after Thanksgiving, when it returns to action for the Penn State Invitational, December 1-3.
Archived article by Josh Vlasto