Swimming, squash look forward to championships

For many of Vassar's winter sport teams, the regular season is coming to a close, and players are gearing up for their postseason competitions. Last weekend marked the final regular season for the swimming and diving and squash teams, in which the Brewers showed promise to do well in the state and national championships.

The women's swimming and diving team finished their regular season last weekend at the Skidmore Sprint Invitational on Feb. 6, while the men's season concluded this past weekend at the Vassar Sprint Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 13. Competing against three other schools, the men's team found themselves coming out on top of Skidmore College, State University of New York at Maritime and Elms College. In a meet that allows swimmers to compete in events they might not normally participate in, the Brewers won 12 of their 16 races in an afternoon that proved to be an ideal pre-championship meet.

Three of those wins came from Jack Smart '12. To this, freshman Nicholas Veazie '13 added two wins of his own. Both Smart and Veazie received Liberty League honors for their performances. Smart was named Swimmer of the Week and Veazie Rookie of the Week, the fourth time the swimmers have each received these honors.

Greg Sullivan '12 showed another strong performance in the diving competition, splitting wins with Skidmore College's Liberty League Diver of the Year. Skidmore won the 3-meter, but Sullivan took the 1-meter, breaking his own school record in the process. Sullivan also received Liberty League honors and was named the Diver of the Week, his third such award of the season. In a season that began official meets on Nov. 1 (and practices that started much earlier), staying committed through the postseason may seem difficult. Interim Head Coach Paul Kueterman however, disagrees, stating that "our training and togetherness really helped us to achieve our goals."

While the men's teams will take this next weekend off, they will be on the road again on Feb. 25 to 27, traveling to Syracuse for the New York State Championships. Meanwhile, the women's team will travel to Syracuse for their State Championship this weekend. "There are many strong teams in the postseason competition," said Kueterman. "We will need to step up together and show everyone that we are just as strong."

The squash teams were also at home this weekend and gave impressive performances at their Vassar Team Challenge on Saturday, Feb. 13. Unlike a typical tournament, the Team Challenge combines the individual match wins of both the men's and women's teams for each school.

In the initial round of play, the women easily took care of their opponent Connecticut College with all players winning their matches 3-0 for a team victory of 9-0. The men struggled a bit more against Connecticut College, losing 9-0, but thanks to no. 2 Arjun Jain '11 and no. 4 Henk Isom '10, they secured enough individual games to advance both teams to the first-place match.

While the men would go on to lose 9-0 to Wesleyan University in the championship, the women had a close battle before being narrowly defeated 5-4 in the match.

Like the men's swim team, the women's squash team will have a break this weekend before traveling to Yale University the weekend of Feb. 26 to 28 to compete in the National Championships. This will be followed by the CSA individuals' competitions at Trinity College on March 5 to 7. Meanwhile, the men's team will travel to Yale for the National Championships this weekend before competing in the CSA indviduals' from March 5 to 7.

For the women, who have finished this season with a 7-6 record, Nationals will be an opportunity to possibly reverse last weekend's result as they will hopefully meet Wesleyan in the Division C finals and take home the division title. Head Coach Jane Parker is confident about these odds citing their second consecutive Liberty League Championship, a second place finish at Seven Sisters and a current national ranking at no. 18 as evidence of their likely success.

Coming into Nationals with a ranking at no. 38 and with three more wins than last year, the men will be competing in Division E at Nationals, an improvement from last season's Division F. "The men are set to prove their worth at Nationals and have the opportunity to finish in their rightful place this season," said Parker. "Obviously we are pulling out all the stops to win the division but if we finish in the top four it will be a huge confidence booster that will inspire a lot of commitment to the off season training program we are setting."