Hello from Wellesley College Swimming and Diving!
What an incredibly year we had! Last season ended with several new school records, three NCAA consideration standards, two people qualifying for NCAA’s and one All American in two events! Junior Kate ‘Sprout’ Sorenson set the school record on both the one and three meter boards for six dives. First Year Alex Simas set the school record in the 1000 free earlier in the season and then crushed the school record in the 1650 by more than 15 seconds at the NEWMAC Championships!
Sprout, junior Savanna Johnson and first year Cathy Poon all achieved NCAA consideration standards. Sprout achieved consideration scores on both boards while Cathy and Savanna achieved B standards for the 50 freestyle. Savanna Johnson spent two weeks during the spring of 2007 as the fastest DIII 50 freestyler in the country, swimming a 23.69 at the NEWMAC Championships. Unfortunately, she severely sprained her ankle over the summer, and then was ill with a type of mono during the 2007-08 season, so we did not quite reach our goal of getting her back into shape for her third trip to NCAAs. However, Cathy and Sprout both earned invitations to the Championships. Sprout ended her season with a 12th place finish on the one meter and a 14th place finish on the three meter boards.
Some exciting things have been taking place this summer that you will also be interested to know.
First, we’re happy to announce that Christopher Card has been selected as the new assistant coach for the Swimming and Diving program. Chris comes to Wellesley from the University of Maine where he was a member of the swim team and majored in Finance. While at the University of Maine, Chris was selected as a Men’s Team Captain, was an AEC Championship finalist, and won the Chandler Comeback Award and Alan D. Switzer Dedication Award. Chris brings a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and dedication to the Wellesley College Swimming program and is excited to begin the season. Chris is also the newly appointed Head Coach of our Masters Swimming Program.
Our Diving coach, Joe Chirico has met with tremendous success in the summer months. In addition to coaching the Wellesley College Diving Team, Joe coaches Boston Area Diving, which won the summer 2008 AAU National Championship on the women’s side, and placed 3rd in the country with his combined team.
Finally, I’ve been active in the swimming world this summer as usual. In addition to leading an initiative to start a Masters swimming program at Wellesley College, I was invited to spend a week at the University of Tennessee and two weeks at Kenyon College coaching at their summer swimming camps. While at the University of Tennessee I had the opportunity to examine Christine Magnuson’s training prior to the US Olympic Trials and I’m looking forward to incorporating the latest evolutions in training techniques into the Wellesley Swimming program.
The fall season begins on September 15th and the team is already in the water holding practices under the guidance of our three impressive captains Sprout, Savanna Johnson, and Katie Guynn. This season we are pushing hard to be a serious contender for the NEWMAC Championship and look to maintain our dominance of the Seven Sisters. With the addition of a talented First Year class, strong leadership from our veteran athletes, and a refreshed and invigorated coaching staff, we are very optimistic about the 2008-2009 out look.