In the last weekend of its season, the women’s swimming and diving team traveled to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. to compete in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championships. Although the Mules finished in 10th place overall, many of the women recorded season-best and personal-best times.

Mandy Ferguson ’12 led the Mules with three championship final round races in three days. On the first day of competition, Ferguson placed eighth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:07.59 and a personal-best 5:05.03 preliminary time. On that same day, Ferguson teamed up with Charlotte Veazie ’12, Jenny Reiner ’12 and Sarah Hansen ’12 to earn seventh place in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a season-best time of 1:39.00. The following night, Ferguson continued her streak with a fourth-place finish in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:30.01). Finally, on the last day of competition, Ferguson raced in the 1650-yard freestyle and earned fifth place with a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) ‘B’ cut qualifying time of 17:24.80.

Several other Colby swimmers also performed well in final-round races. Jess Blais ’12 recorded a season-best 28:39 in the preliminary round of the 50-yard backstroke before taking 11th place overall (28:45). Sarah Nalven ’13 and Kayleigh Monahan ’13 also had good showings in the 50-yard backstroke and earned 15th and 16th place, respectively. Rosie Wennberg ’13 took 13th place in the 50-yard butterfly with a time of 26.85 following a season-best 26:74 clocking in the preliminary. Hansen took 20th place overall in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25:07 while Veazie earned 22nd place in the 200-yard individual medley (2:13.30). In the 100-yard butterfly, Kathryn Lee ’13 took 14th place and Wennberg grabbed 15th place with times of 59.71 and 1:00.71, respectively.

Rounding out the meet, several of the women’s relay teams earned top times. Blais, Josie Bazemore ’13, Lee and Reiner took 10th place in the 400-yard medley relay (4:06.05) while Hansen, Wennberg, Veazie and Ferguson claimed 10th place in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:37.30). Finally, Blais, Bazemore, Wennberg and Hansen earned 11th place in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:52.19.

At the end of the three-day championship, the Mules had recorded 443.5 points to put themselves in 10th place overall.

On Feb. 24, 25 and 26, the men’s swimming and diving team will travel to Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. to compete in its own NESCAC championship meet. Leading men’s swimmers Mason Roberts ’12, Ray Rieling ’12, Jack Mauel ’12, Ryan Trafton ’12 and Vincent Galea ’15 look to end their seasons strongly.