CMC75 Moments: 2010 Women's Swimming and Diving Earns Highest NCAA Finish
As part of the buildup to the 75th Anniversary celebration for Claremont McKenna College (visit CMC's 75th Anniversary Countdown Page to learn more), we are reliving many of the great moments from CMS athletic department history over the 75-day countdown from April 17 to July 1. If you were a part of this great moment and would like to add to the memories, or if you would like to submit your memories of your own favorite CMS Athletics moment, fill out the form on our main 75th Anniversary page.
Great Moments from 75 Years of Athetics
2010 Women's Swim & Dive: Perizzolo's Dual Titles Lead CMS to Fifth Place
Annie Perizzolo made program history for CMS women's swimming and diving by becoming only the third national champion … and then she became the fourth. Perizzolo swept both breaststroke events for the Athenas at the NCAA Division III Championships, becoming the first female swimmer at CMS to win twice at the same trip to nationals. She earned the 100 breast in 1:01.84, winning by almost two seconds, and added a dominant win in the 200 breast in 2:14.83, taking first place by 3.5 seconds.
Perizzolo was far from competing alone for CMS at nationals, either, as the Athenas finished in fifth place as a team with 177 points (behind only Emory, Denison, Williams and Kenyon), the highest finish in program history. Katie Bilotti also reached the medal stand twice as the second-place finisher in the 100 fly and as the third-place finisher in the 100 back. Elsa Cheng, Tessa Dover, Emma Jones, Jenni Rinker and Elica Sharifinia joined Perizzolo and Bilotti in winning All-America honors with the CMS medley relay teams, which performed at an exceptionally high level all year.
The 200 medley relay team of Cheng, Perizzolo, Bilotti and Jones and 400 medley relay team of Dover, Perrizolo, Bilotti and Jones both finished second to Denison to add to the CMS point total. Individually, Dover also reached the finals of the 200 back, finishing sixth for 13 points, and became the first-ever winner of the newly-created Elite 88 Award (now the Elite 90 Award) for having the highest cumulative GPA of anyone competing at nationals. She won that award again when she returned to nationals again as a senior in 2011 to help the Athenas to another top-10 finish (seventh).
Annie Perizzolo:
In 2008, the Athenas placed 14th at NCAAs, in 2009 we placed 6th. Personally, I placed second in the 200 breast two years in a row prior to 2010. The entire season, I had a sense of pressure to outperform the previous years. Coach Charlie set us up for success with hard training and a well planned taper. By the time we got on the pool deck at NCAAs that year, I don't think there was anything that would get in our way. All of my memories from the actual meet revolve around smiling and joking with the team on deck because I knew, and I think the rest of the team knew, we were ready. We just had to get in there and do our thing. While I was happy and proud with my 100 breast swim (and win), I almost immediately moved on to thinking about the races the next day. If there needed to be proof of that, I left the 100 breast award on the pool deck and Charlie got a call at dinner asking if his swimmer could come pick up the first place award.
While NCAAs was a highlight of the 2010 season, it's the moments leading up to it that really stick out to me. Our medley relay pushed ourselves all season to set the bar as high as we could and perform as well as we could, even when we didn't have close races during the season. Specifically, I remember prelims of SCIACs that year - we were more than half a length ahead of the other teams but celebrated as if we won the lottery when we finished because we made an "A" cut with that first swim. What an achievement. I can also remember so many mornings in the weight room or Saturday practices where the entire team just added one more weight or did one more sprint. We knew we had it in us to make history that season.
One of my favorite things from that NCAAs was not just our swimming achievements, but Tessa's academic achievement and how we worked as a team. Tessa received the NCAA Elite 88 Award for the first time that season (she received it again in 2011) and each team member scored points. For me there was a real sense of focusing on the relays, focusing on team performance, and just soaking in the experience of being a Division III Student-Athlete that got to enjoy reaching for the stars with my fellow Athenas (and Stags)!
Katie Bilotti:
It was my sophomore year, so I remember approaching the season with a bit more confidence than the year prior. We knew what to expect, we knew each other, and we knew what we were capable of. We were all in it for the long-game, training intentionally all season with visions of NCAA success. One funny memory I have that sticks out in my mind is we were all so obsessed with hitting our taper just right, that Charlie actually found a hotel pool in Phoenix that we could go to during a our long layover at Sky Harbor. Jeff McNearny's parents (who lived in Phoenix) picked us up in a truck and we rode in the truckbed to go swim in a bean shaped pool for 20 minutes. That must have been our key to success!
That season was all about the relays. I still remember the magic of having trained all year together and knowing each other's strokes, moods, and idiosyncrasies like our own. I can still get goosebumps thinking about revving up for my Fly leg after the energy Annie always brought with the Breast. I think there was some unspoken collective weight knowing that it was Annie's last year, so we had to leave it all in the pool no matter what.
Carliann Brashier:
While I wasn't on the NCAA team in 2010, I remember watching the meet and specifically being so proud of Annie. I distinctly remember talking to her on the phone between races at NCAAs. I was so sad I couldn't be there to support her in person after swimming with her at NCAAs the two previous years (especially with our CO bond!), but was glad as a teammate I could still support her from afar when she needed it.
Coming back from abroad that season made me appreciate the team component of CMS so much more. For the first time in probably my whole swimming career, I just enjoyed swimming, my teammates, and was really able to cherish their successes.
2009-10 Women's Swimming and Diving Roster
Head Coach: Charles Griffiths
Assistant Coaches: Tom Romano, Shea Manning
Diving Coach: Jimmy Adams
Juliet Archer (Jr., CMC)
Katie Bilotti (So., CMC)
Carliann Brashier (Jr., CMC)
Sara Caldwell (Sr., CMC)
Kelly Chang (Fr., Scripps)
Elsa Cheng (Fr., CMC)
Whitney Dawson (So., CMC)
Tessa Dover (Jr., CMC)
Clair Geary (Sr., Scripps)
Olivia Graham (Fr., CMC)
Nicola Hyde (Sr., Scripps)
Emma Jones (So., CMC)
Ashley Kretsch (Fr., HMC)
Katie Lesyna (So., Scripps)
Carmen Lundell (Fr., CMC)
Tara McIntyre (Fr., CMC)
Teija Mortvedt (Jr. Scripps)
Kristina Norrgard (So., CMC)
Julia Ogburn (Fr., Scripps)
Katie Oi (Sr., CMC)
Jaclyn Olmos-Silverman (Fr., HMC)
Emily Ott (Fr., CMC)
Annie Perizzolo (Jr., CMC)
Ellen Pickrell (So., CMC)
Jennifer Rinker (Jr., HMC)
Elica Sharifinia (So., CMC)
Amy Tresenrider (So., CMC)
Ching Tung (So., CMC)
India Wade (Fr., CMC)
Carmen-Rosa Wishart (Sr., CMC)
Heidi Wolfgruber (Jr., CMC)