Last Saturday, the women’s swim team opened their season in Eagle Rock with an exciting victory over SCIAC foe Occidental with a score of 131-109. With a victory in the final relay, the 200 free (1:47.29), Alli Schwartzman ’01, Breen Murphy ’00, Elizabeth Widmar ’03, and Jackie Cole ’02 sealed the deal for Pomona-Pitzer. "The whole team really pulled together for this one," Captain Margo Middaugh ’01 said. If you had to pick out one awesome individual performance for the day, well, that would have to be Christen Parker ’02 who just plain cleaned house, winning the 100 free (55.73) and the 500 free (5:27.97), as well as kicking in a leg for the 200 medley (backstroke).

Joseph Koch A determined Sagehen races for the finish line. The team looks to improve on their second place finish of a year ago.

Leading the team this year are Head Coach Arthur Wang and his assistant Katie Weitzel. If the comments of a few of the team members are any indication of the quality of this coaching tandem, then Sagehen fans have nothing to worry about. "Flat-out — they make us work," said one swimmer with a serious tone in her voice. These coaches want to win. Coming back to campus two weeks early on January 3 for winter training, the women’s swim team and its coaches are dedicating themselves to improving on last year’s second-place finish behind rival CMS.

Beating CMS to the finish line might very well mean beating the conference to the line come February and the conference championships. But the SCIAC might not go down that easily: says Christen Parker, "CMS may have won it last year, but LaVerne beat them last week, and Redlands is supposed to be good too, so I’d say the whole league will be really competitive. We want to win it all. We have fast freshmen, as well as a solid returning core of swimmers." Complicating the equation for the Sagehen roster are the worldly juniors who will either be leaving or coming back for next semester in just a few weeks. The team is losing Captain Alli Schwartzman ’01 and Claire Townsend ’01, but don’t worry, because Ashley Eastman ’01 and All-American Kate Bollinger ’01 (butterfly) will both arrive back in quaint little Claremont after a few months away from the campus. Next Friday and Saturday the Sagehens are hoping to sweep archrival CMS under the rug in the CMS Invitational up at CMC’s pool. With three sessions of swimming (Friday afternoon, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon), there will be plenty of excitement for everybody no matter what your sleep schedule is like as final exams approach. So put on your orange and blue and chirp like a mad-crazy-fool; these women are for real.