By Mike Springer
Staff Writer

Defined by continual improvement, focus, and determination, this year’s men’s swimming and diving team completed their season last weekend at the NESCAC championships held at Bowdoin.

After opening the season 0-3, the Bobcats revamped their roster with additional students who had been studying abroad and a transfer student from Dennison. In the second half of the season, Bates put forth a new team hungry for victory.

Bates finished the dual meet season 4-5 with a victory against Connecticut College before hitting the road for the NESCAC meet with hopes of improving on their sixth place finish from last year.

“We’re undersized this year,” said coach Mulholland. “It’ll be harder for us to improve on last year’s standings, but these guys have been working hard and as always improvement is our goal.”

The Bobcats left for NESCAC’s last Friday looking to display their improvement, focus, and determination.

They pulled out an eighth-place finish in the first event of the day, the 200 free relay. A Bates swimmer wouldn’t crack the eighth-place mark again until Bretl pulled out a fifth-place finish in the 50 free later that day. Erik Baker suffered his first defeat of the year with a second-place finish in the one-meter diving competition.

Saturday represented another gloomy day for the Bobcats. Bates opened the day with an eighth-place finish in the 200 medley relay. Curll pulled out a shining seventh-place finish in the 200 fly.

Bates entered Sunday with a modest 368 points, tied for ninth with Trinity College. At this point Williams was leading the pack with 1256.5 points, while closely followed by Amherst who racked in 1028 points.

Sunday Curll and Baker pulled the Bobcats through the last of the weekend’s competition. Curll picked up eighth place in the 200 fly while Baker picked up a second place finish from the three-meter board.

The Bobcats returned to campus placing tenth after being edged out by Trinity and Colby in the final events of the championships. Williams was three hundred points ahead of Amherst to pull out the victory.

“We couldn’t do anything about the score, so everyone just swam their hearts out,” said Adam Eggert.

“I don’t think anyone swam badly. Many people scored personal bests and the young guys showed promise for the future,” Eggert continued. “I also have to say that Nate (Curll) and Todd (Bretl) swam amazingly this weekend. Overall, it was a good meet for us despite the score.”

Bretl broke a six-year-old school record in the 100 free with a time of 47.72. Currl set a record in the 100 fly with his 52.22 effort.

“The season ended for us on a good note,” added Eggert. “It’ll be exciting to see what happens next year.”

Before heading into the NESCAC championships, the team beat Connecticut College at home 170-122. With record-setting performance in the medley relay, continued dominance by sophomore sensation Erik Baker from the diving board, and leadership from Bretl and Curll, the Bobcats handily defeated the visiting Cammels.

“Swimming [against] Connecticut College, a strong team, was a great way to end our season... I have no doubt that our focus and drive will continue through our championship meet at Bowdoin,” said Curll.

Respond to this article