Men’s first swimming meet of season brings win, loss

Weekly Roundup: Women beat Babson, lose to MIT in opening swim meet

Rarely is a loss by a 150-point margin considered a job well done. But for the women's swimming and diving team, the first meet of the season on November 19 proved to be just that. The Polar Bears fell to national powerhouse MIT 212-87, but prevailed over Babson 224-71.

Weekly Roundup: Women’s basketball comes back from loss with victories

The women's basketball team had an up and down week, losing by 15 points to Colby before beating Husson by 35 and Bates by six. Bowdoin's offense stagnated against Colby last Saturday, as every shot seemed to miss and the team made less than 30 percent of its attempts from the floor in a 56-41 loss.

Weekly Roundup

Men’s first swimming meet of season brings win, loss

December 2, 2011

Courtesy of Bowdoin Sports Information

**ALL IN:** A group of swimmers dives into a November 19 race in Greason Pool. Both the men and women lost to MIT but beat Babson.

Despite being trounced 222-76 by the MIT Engineers in its first meet of the year two weeks ago, the men's swimming and diving team still managed to walk away with a victory after toppling Babson 197-99 the same day.

MIT is the strongest team in New England and is projected to be among the nation's top three teams this season, so Bowdoin's Head Coach Brad Burnham said he was not fazed by the loss.

"I was impressed with how the team approached the race and the swimmers' stamina," Burnham said. Yet he noted that the first meet highlighted necessary improvements, such as "how to pace the race and use turns to find speed."

Instead of focusing on the lopsided loss against MIT, Burnham applauded the strong individual performances of the meet.

Bowdoin captured a slew of second-place finishes, led by captain Nathan Mecray '12 in both the 100-yard breaststroke (58.49) and freestyle (46.81). Chris Granata '14 placed second in the 200-yard butterfly (1:57.30), with Basyl Stuyvesant '13 taking second place in the 200-yard backstroke (1:58.76).

"We had a lot of good swims," said Mecray, who attributed the performances to higher intensity practices with increased yardage. "MIT is on a whole other level, but we did well by our standards."

At this point in the season, the goal for the next meet—this weekend's MIT Invitational—remains simple, according to Mecray: "We're just looking to beat our times from the previous meet."

-Compiled by Clare McLaughlin.

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