Garnet BeDevil Dickinson 107-98
The Garnet built an early lead, hung on through the middle races and pulled out the victory in the final event to defeat visiting Dickinson 107-98 in a Centennial Conference meet at Ware Pool.
Swarthmore got off to a fast start by capturing the first three races to build a 43-12 advantage. The team of Melanie Johncilla '05, Michele Hom '07, Jennie Lewis '08, and Whitney Nekoba '08 won the 400 medley relay in 4:10.17. Katherine Reid '05 captured the 1,000 freestyle in 11:11.85 and Nekoba earned her second victory of the day by leading a Garnet sweep in the 200 freestyle. Nekoba took first in 2:00.34 followed by Patricia Funk '06 (2:04.12), and Lewis (2:05.15).
Stacey Foltz broke the Garnet streak by winning the 50 freestyle for Dickinson in 25.11. Franny Zhang '08 won the 200 IM in 2:15.74 to give the Tide a 62-31 advantage.
Dickinson captured the next five events as Leslie Vaughan won the 200 butterfly (2:16.01), Lauren Tammany placed first in the 100 freestyle in 55.25, Karen Younkins won the 200 backstroke (2:18.21), and Kim Ogren won the 500 freestyle (5:21.12) and the 200 breaststroke (2:30.34) to tie the meet at 94-94 with one event remaining.
The Garnet prevailed in the 400 freestyle relay as anchor Sarah Cotcamp '07 touched the wall less than a second ahead of Foltz in 3:40.90 to 3:41.89. Zhang, Johncilla and Kathryn Jantz '05 joined Cotcamp on the relay.
Swarthmore improves to 6-4 overall and 4-2 in the CC while the Devils drop to 9-3, 4-3.
Swarthmore hosts Washington on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the season finale.