Sophomore Whitney Paine stood as one of three Bates swimmers to set new pool records over the weekend as she finished the 50-yard backstroke in 27.90 at the team’s dual meet with Trinity and Wesleyan to earn female Bobcat of the Week honors for the week of Nov. 18-24.
In addition to Paine, first-year Sara Daher (Marblehead, Mass.) established a Tarbell Pool record with a time of 2:10.87 in the 200-yard individual medley, and on the men’s side, junior Andrew Briggs (York, Maine) created a new pool high mark in the 50-yard breaststroke (27.56).
The Bobcats won all four match-ups on the day with the women’s side defeating Trinity 219-77 and Wesleyan 218-81 while the men’s team beat Trinity 165-122 and Wesleyan 186.5-92.5 in the teams’ home opener on Saturday.
A Moultonborough, N.H., native, Paine also finished a close second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 54.98 as senior teammate Gabrielle Sergi (Newburyport, Mass.) out-touched her, clocking in at 54.43.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we need to get a lot better to compete against the top teams in the conference,” head coach Peter Casares said after the meet. “But it is important to have moments that demonstrate that your hard work is paying off and that the work we do at the pool day in and day out is worthwhile. We had one of those moments today.”