While the Johns Hopkins men's swim team rested up for the ECAC Championship to be held in Pittsburgh next Friday, the women's team competed at the Emory Invitational in Atlanta, qualifying several swimmers for Nationals.
The Emory Invitational, which was held last Friday and Saturday, was the final opportunity for the women to make their cuts to go to the NCAA Championship meet. Several individuals thrived in this pressure-filled environment, and, as a result, Hopkins will be sending 12 women to Nationals -- the most ever by the Lady Jays.
Freshman Kelly Robinson, who qualified in the 100-meter fly last weekend with a time of 58.71, felt the excitement and urgency of this meet helped her make the cut. "The excitement of knowing that it was my last chance to qualify helped me swim faster," she said.
Robinson also won the 200-meter fly at the Emory Invitational in 2:10.21. In addition to Kelly, Hopkins will be sending two other freshmen to the National Championships: Allie Foster and Ariana Reks.
Foster had already qualified in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststroke before last weekend's meet. She felt that, on the whole, the Blue Jays swam much better in the final rounds in the evenings than they did in the preliminaries in the mornings. At Emory, Foster won the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:06.63. Reks qualified in her freestyle event. At the Emory meet, she placed third with a time of 54.93.
Freshman Ashley Devonshire performed well at the Emory Invitational, posting times of 1:57.80 in the 200-meter freestyle and 54.56 in the 100-meter freestyle but came up just short of the national cuts for these events.
The sophomore class will certainly be well represented at Nationals, with eight members of this class qualifying for the prestigious event. Carly Benner will be swimming distance freestyle in the contest. Jessica Chang, who swam the 100-meter breaststroke in 1:07.17 last weekend, will be swimming that same event in the D-III Championships. Stephanie Leaman, a distance swimmer who had already qualified for NCAAs, geared up for the big meet with a time of 17:30.82 in the 1650-meter freestyle. Leaman also registered a fourth place finish in the 400-meter fly with a time of 4:56.58.
Another sophomore standout, Katie Herbst, will be swimming the freestyle at Nationals. With a 1:59.39 time in the 200-meter freestyle at Emory, Herbst appears ready for the big meet. Sida Liu, who took second place in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 54.80, had already qualified in butterfly and backstroke.
Abiona Redwood was already a lock to go to Nationals, but she kept her stroke sharp by swimming the 50-yard freestyle in 24.61. Kalei Walker will be swimming the 200-meter freestyle for the Blue Jays.
She swam that event in 1:56.04 last weekend. Rounding out the sophomore class qualifiers for the Lady Jays is Kristin Stepaniak, who will also be representing Hopkins at the championships for the second consecutive year. She attained a qualifying time in the 200-meter breaststroke, completing it in 2:24.03.
The sole representative of the junior class at the National meet will be co-captain Diana Smirnova, who will compete in the butterfly and the freestyle events. She performed well at the Emory Invitational, swimming a 2:11.08 in the 200-meter fly.
"The meet was mainly just an opportunity to race a make cuts and we were very successful," said Smirnova. "This is the first time in my Hopkins career that we have taken more than 10 girls to Nationals."
Although none of the seniors on the team will be going to Nationals, co-captain Emma Gregory finished her Hopkins career with career-best times in the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly. Gregory broke one minute for the first time ever on the 100-yard butterfly, completing it in 59.98.
With the NCAAs quickly approaching, the women will train intensely for one more week and then begin tapering off to rest up for the championship. In spite of the anticipation surrounding the meet, the next two weeks will actually be much more relaxed for the women's team.
"It would be amazing for someone to win an individual event," said Foster. "Our team goal has always been to place in the top four."
With so many people participating in the meet, this goal is within reach this season.
The en's team will swim in the ECAC meet Friday and Saturday.
"If people win individually, that's good, but we always want to win as a team," said senior co-captain Oliver Buccicone. "We recruit against a lot of the teams that will be in this meet, so it is important that we are able to say we won ECACs."
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