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The University of Maine women’s swimming and diving team took second place at their meet Saturday afternoon, falling to the Huskies from Northeastern but triumphing over the Catamounts from the University of Vermont.
UMaine sophomore Tal Shpaizer took first in the 200-yard backstroke and placed second in the 200-yard individual medley.
Head Coach Jeff Wren said Shpaizer is performing equally well in her IM events as well as her primary event, the backstroke. But Shpaizer is only one of the several ladies on the team who are shaving whole seconds off their race times and setting new personal bests, according to Wren.
“There’s a number of kids at different levels who are doing that,” Wren said. “Tal [Shpaizer] is swimming generally ahead of what she did last year across the board.”
Shpaizer entered the championships last year posting a time of about 2:14. This year, Shpaizer has already beaten that time in three different races, including Saturday’s race where she posted a time of 2:13.08. Wren credits her improvement to the stamina she shows in her races.
“She has a tremendous capacity to race really hard at the end of those races,” he said.
Also placing in the top three in multiple events was junior Megan Wolters, who took first in the 200 freestyle and second in the 500 freestyle.
Wolters time of 1:55.32 in the 200 freestyle is just shy of school record for UMaine, something that Wren said surprised him for a couple of reasons: Wolters is regularly a backstroker and record times are almost always set during championship season.
“You don’t normally set school records during the regular season,” Wren said. “Megan’s definitely an outstanding swimmer. We knew she was a very good backstroker. Freestyle is a nice little bonus.”
Wolter’s time in the 500 free is less than one second short of a time set by Whitney Leeman more than 20 years ago at UMaine. But Wren may be in for another surprise from the swimmer he refers to as a “vicious competitor.”
“It’s exciting to be this close to the record now but we’ll see what I can do in the future,” Wolters said. “Hopefully I’ll be breaking some records.”
Wolters does admit to being an intense competitor, but said the competition is just as fierce whether she’s competing against herself or another team.
“I always want to try to improve myself and beat the person on the other team as well,” Wolters said. “I’m definitely very hard on myself.”
Wolters was also a member on the 200-yard freestyle relay team that placed first on Saturday with a time of 1:43.92. Candace Coville, Heather Griffin and Karin Feldman rounded out the winning relay team.
“The whole team is swimming awesome this season so it gives you high hopes for the rest of the season and the conference,” Wolters said.
Freshman Kiki O’Donnell also took first place in one of her events. O’Donnell posted a time of 2:30.90 in the 200-yard breaststroke. O’Donnell’s win is an amazing comeback from a fourth-place finish in the event against Stoney Brook College, where she posted a time almost seven seconds more than her time on Saturday.
Wren credits O’Donnell’s improvement to her being a “very hard worker” and some recent technique changes.
“A stroke adjustment helped her and got her feeling good about things and confidence is a good thing,” Wren said.
The Black Bear women will have to face Northeastern again when both teams travel to Brunswick, Maine to take on Bowdoin College on Nov. 23.
Bangor Daily News