Women's Swimming and Diving Competes in NESCAC Meet

JULIA KENNARD ’20
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Women’s Swimming and Diving team’s motivation for their entire season was focused on coming up shy by only three points last season. After their two-day meet in Williamstown, Massachusetts the team had the strongest finish since 2003, coming in ninth overall in the NESCAC Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship Meet with 443.5 points. The Williams College Ephs won the meet with 1,971 points.
Samantha McStocker ‘21 had a phenomenal meet that included finishing fourth, fifth, and sixth in her three backstroke events. Her fourth-place finish was topped-off with a school record- breaking time of 2:03.07 in the 200-meter backstroke. This swim qualified her for the NCAA Division III Championships in March. McStocker set another school record in the 50-meter backstroke with a time of 27.02 during her sixth-place finish during the Friday session of the two-day long meet. However, backstroke is not the only stroke she dominated, in the 400-yard relay her time of 53.67 on her 100-meter freestyle leg broke a 34-year-old Trinity record. On the Saturday of the meet, McStocker broke the Trinity College 100-meter backstroke record again with her preliminary time of 56.92, another qualifying time for the NCAA Division III Championships.
The meet opener was a record breaker, which set the tone for a phenomenal Bantam meet overall. The first 200-meter freestyle relay team of Julia Albino ‘20, McStocker, Nia Tzianabos ‘20, and Grace Gorman ‘21 finished with a time of 1:44.60. Audrey Ettinger ’20 finished in 17th place in her 200-meter butterfly event, recording her career best time of 2:09.55, the second-fastest in Trinity history. In the 200-meter medley relay, McStocker, Albino, and Tzianabos added another Trinity record to the list with a time of 1:48.32 and a ninth-place finish. The 200-yard relays weren’t the only strong events for the Bantams. Nicole Cannon ’21, Ettinger, Gorman, and McStocker set a school record time of 4:10.71 in the 400-meter medley relay. Ettinger’s 17th place finish in the 200-meter IM with a time of 2:10.25 solidified yet another school-record breaking time for the Trinity women.
Diving finished strong with the Bantams having three top-20 scorers in the three-meter dive. Lia Urban-Spillane ’21 was 10th with a score of 354.20, Jazmin Johnson ’21 placed 18th with 277.20, and senior tri-captain Bailey D’Antonio ’18 came in 19th with 268 points. Next up for the Bantams is the NCAA Division III Diving Regional Championships on Mar. 3 at Middlebury College.