The Colby men's and women's swim teams are anxiously awaiting the first meet of the season, and have a confident season outlook. The Mules will begin their season hosting a meet against the always-competitive Amherst College team on Saturday, November 21. After that, the Mules have two more meets before winter break, one at the University of New England on November 24 and one at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on December 4, 5. The Mules will then have a break until the competitive season commences again with a home meet on January 9 versus Middlebury College.


The women's team has four seniors this season: Aimee Sheppard, Fran Izzo, Alice Evans and Danielle Carlson, all of whom are captains. Carlson, who competes in the individual medley, freestyle and breaststroke, is the woman to look out for this season. Strong returning swimmers for the women include Mandy Ferguson '10 (long-distance freestyle), Jessica Blais '12 (backstroke) and Chelsea Henneghan '11 (freestyle and individual medley). The women's team has some very strong first-years this season, including Heather Cronin (long-distance freestyle), Kathryn Lee (butterfly and sprint freestyle), Rosie Wennberg (butterfly and sprint freestyle) and Kayleigh Monahan (backstroke). "All of the freshmen will contribute considerably to our team, and hopefully make us the strongest we have been in a long time!" Evans said.


The men's team also has four senior co-captains: Ben Gross (sprint freestyle and stroke events), Riley Taylor (freestyle and breast stroke), David Hirsch (freestyle) and Kevin Smith (long-distance freestyle). Watch out for Gross and Smith, who are usually leaders in the pool. Some of the top performing men this year are Raymond Rieling 12 (freestyle), Brian Gilligan '12 (individual medley), Ryan Trafton '12 (butterfly) and Ryan Fischer '12 (long-distance freestyle). The men's team has two first-years: Adam Spierer (breaststroke and individual medley) and James Hootsmans (freestyle).


The women's team has seven juniors and the men's team has two juniors abroad this fall, however, when the teams returns for the bulk of the meets in January, they will be in full force.

Both teams worked hard in the off season, building up yardage in the pool and complementing their pool workouts with dry land programs in the gym. Everyone on the team has already shown dedication to the team, and excitement is rising in the athletes as the season approaches.


The women hope to win another CBB Championship this season. "Bates and Bowdoin should definitely be scared," Carlson said, "but most importantly, we want to enjoy ourselves and have fun like only Colby swimmers can." In addition, Evans has high hopes for the women's team. "We're all very excited about the promise of the women's team this year," she said.

The men's goal is for each swimmer to swim as fast as possible in every meet this season, and it hopes to send a number of swimmers to the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) finals this year. "We hope to swim faster than we have before," Gross said.