The aches and burns of a long season were not enough to deny the swimming and diving teams a definitive pair of wins over Colby last weekend.
The men's team (5-1) routed the Mules by a score of 192-101, while the women (4-2) overpowered Colby 194-101.
Leading the way for the men were Basyl Stuyvesant '13, captain Nathan Mecray '12 and Ryan Peabody '14, each of whom won two events.
For the women, Katherine Foley '13, Teri Faller '15 and captain Allen Garner '12 each won twice.
First years posted impressive individual wins: Patty Boyer won the 50 free for the women, and for the men, Peter Deardorff and Ryan Kulesza won the 200 free and 200 IM, respectively.
Additionally, Helen Newton '14 won the 100 breaststroke, Caitlin Hutchinson-Maddox '14 won the 200 butterfly, and Maeve O'Leary '14 won the 200 breaststroke. To round out the victory, E.J. Googins '13 won the 50 free and captain Mac Routh '12 won the 100 butterfly for the men.
Routh said that even though they were favored to win the meet, the Polar Bears still had to fight for every point.
"It wasn't expected to be a close meet, but we did what we had to do in order to win and posted some impressive performances," he said.
Apart from the many stellar individual performances, both teams swept the dives, as Mae Speight '13 and Tom Kramer '15 paced all divers. Bowdoin also beat Colby in each of the four relays.
Stuyvesant acknowledged this season's numerous successes compared to past Bowdoin squads.
"This is the best swimming and especially diving team to have come through Bowdoin," he said. "The current men's team holds over half of the school records."
With the Polar Bears' last regular season meet behind them, their next competition will be the biggest challenge of the year: the NESCAC championships.
"Essentially we try to get our bodies used to swimming fast, while also taking the workload down a notch in order to rest for the meet," explained Routh.
"The women are officially into their taper for the conference meet," said Head Coach Brad Burnham. "The men are in a transitional week before they really begin the resting process," which he said will be crucial because "We have the usual aches and pains coming out of the heavy training."
"My expectation for the conference meet is as always," he said. "We will race hard and support each other with everything we have. We will leave it all in the pool."
Stuyvesant said that both teams will strive to do their best at the NESCAC championship, which take place next weekend for the women and the following weekend for the men.
"While Williams, Amherst, and Tufts are fierce competition, we fully expect and will strive to beat every other NESCAC team at the championship," he said.
Last weekend's performances have shown Routh that this year's team stands among the best in school history.
"We made a big leap last year in the championship meet, moving up to sixth place and the second tier of the conference," he said. "Our goal this year is to finish fourth, ahead of Middlebury and Connecticut College, which would be our best finish in program history."
Googins believes that this goal is realistically attainable.
"Williams, Tufts and Amherst are always in the top three," he said, largely because their teams are relatively large. "But we are looking forward to what will likely be our best finish in many years."