The women's swimming and diving team finished sixth of the seven teams at the MIT invitational last week while the men's side came in fifth of six. Head coach Brad Burnham was hoping for more from his teams' performances.
"I was not satisfied. I don't think I am ever satisfied," he said. "I was happy with where we are in our season, but we can always [do] better."
Despite the somewhat disappointing performance in Cambridge, Burnham is not worried about his teams' potential for the season, but said that he could not stress the importance of practice enough.
"Some people performed well in many different races and others were not ready to race to their potential yet," he said. "Looking through the results, I would say we performed well in the middle distances but were weak in the shorter distance races."
Individual standouts on the men's team included Nathan Mecray '12, who turned in two solid fourth place finishes in the 50 and the 100-yard freestyle and first year Linc Rhodes who took fifth place in the 200-yard butterfly.
Strong races from first years Chris Granata and Ryan Peabody also gained points for the Polar Bears.
Junior Allen Garner led the women's side in individual performances, placing fourth in the 200-yard backstroke and sixth in the 400-yard IM. Christine Rholl '14 also swam two strong races, coming in ninth in both the 200-yard backstroke and the 400-yard IM.
Both teams posted strong relay results. The men's 400-yard medley relay team of Basil Stuyvesant '13, Mecray, Granata and Peabody placed fifth while the women's 200 freestyle relay team of Kaley Kokomoor '13, Allison Palmer '11, Garner and Peyton Morss '14 took sixth place.
Swimming captain Caitlin Callahan too was not troubled by the teams' performances at this point in the season.
"We treat this meet as a training meet, intended to show us what we have learned so far this season and to remind us of what we need to keep working on during our winter training camp," she said. "We're looking forward to refining our technique over the next month and gearing up for some great races and successful meets next semester."
The teams' next race is against Bates and the race will be the first test that will determine the swimming team's season.
"They are better than us on paper, but I'm planning for the team to be ready to race them in every event," Burnham said. "We will be in a very different place physically and mentally. Bates will provide a great first test [for our season]. We will need each member of the team to see their potential contribution to the team."