On Saturday, Feb. 3, the Hamilton men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams hosted Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in a dual meet at the Bristol Pool, in the final home meet of the season. Both the men’s and women’s teams were coming off a narrow loss to Rochester Institute of Technology on Sunday Jan. 28, where Madeleine Lepesant ’19 of the women’s team won the 200-yard butterfly, Sadie Logan ’20 won the 100-yard freestyle, and Julia Martin ’21 won the 200 individual medley. On the men’s side, Ben Cooper ’18 won the 100-yard backstroke, 200 yard backstroke, and 100 yard butterfly, Ben Kaplan ’21 won the 200-fly and Evan Tatro ’20 won the 200-yard individual medley.

After these strong performances last Sunday, the men and women were ready to take on the challenge of Rensselaer, whose dual meet record is 7–1 for men and 9–0 for women. The Continentals certainly did not expect the competition to be easy, and it certainly was not, but by facing such a powerful swimming and diving team, Hamilton will be far more prepared going into the NESCAC Championships on Feb. 16, 17 and 18.

Saturday’s meet commenced with the 200-yard medley relays, in which RPI teams won on both the men’s and women’s sides. The Hamilton women’s team of Logan, Martin, Isabel Lepesant ’21, and Emma Raynor ’18 came in a close second at a time of 1:54.10, three seconds behind RPI’s winning team. The men’s team of Cooper, Tripp Miller ’18, Evan Tatro, and Case Tatro also came in second with a time of 1:39.34, less than one second behind the winning team. However, in the next event, the 1000 yard freestyle, Jess Halladay ’18 won the women’s final with a time of 11:13.03, and Trevor Pearson ’18 won the men’s final with a time of 10:27.07, both with considerable leads.

In the women’s 200 yard freestyle, Raynor took second place to RPI’s Danielle Suave with a time of 2:02.04, a great swim following her performance earlier in the 200 medley relay. Logan, also a part of 200 medley relay team with Raynor, took second in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 101.90.

Later on in the meet, Miller took first place in the men’s 200 yard backstroke with a time of 2:11.42, blowing away his competitors in this solo event by a four second lead.

Miller also performed well in his leg of the 200 medley earlier in the meet, and took second place in the 100 yard backstroke touching the wall at 1:00.25.

Madeleine Lepesant came in second in the women’s 200 yard butterfly with a time of 2:16.97, though she would have taken first in any normal competition; on Saturday, Lepesant had to race against RPI’s Shanny Lin, who came in a full ten seconds ahead of any other swimmer in the 200 butterfly.

In the men’s 500 freestyle, Case Tatro finished in second place with a time of 5:05.11 behind RPI’s Trevor Maxfield. Tatro was also a member of the second place relay team earlier in Saturday’s meet.

Isabel Lepesant came in a close second in the women’s 100 yard butterfly with a time of 1:02.00, closely followed by Lepesant at 1:04.51.

Toward the end of the meet, in the women’s 200 yard race, Hamilton’s Martin barely lost to Amanda Wang of RPI. Martin touched the wall after 2:16.09, a heartbreaking .21 seconds after Wang’s finish.

The men’s team lost to Rensselaer at the final score of 226–71, and the women’s team also fell to RPI 215–83.

These losses, however, are to be expected when facing as talented and powerful a team as RPI’s. Saturday’s meet provided the Continentals with an example of the kind of competition they will be facing in two weeks at the NESCAC Championships, and sets their focus on what could lay beyond NESCAC — the NCAA Championships.

The men’s and women’s teams now look forward to Feb. 16, 17, and 18, when they will travel to Williams College for the NESCAC Championship.

Success there will not come easily, but after the performances this weekend and the one before it, it would be no surprise to see the Continentals grab at least a few first place finishes in the championships.