Swimmers survive scare at Dartmouth

By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer

Dartmouth junior Tom Sanford was one of three athletes from Hawai'i to enjoy outstanding seasons in Ivy League pools. Dartmouth Sports Publicity

There were moments last December when Tom Sanford (Hawai'i Prep '00 of Kamuela), Kristin Simunovich (Punahou '02 of Kailua) and Grant Chang (Punahou '00 of Manoa) thought this would be their swan song in collegiate swimming.

Dartmouth announced — without warning, the locals say — three days before Thanksgiving that the swimming program would be cut to save its $212,000 annual budget because Dartmouth's endowment had shrunk 5.7 percent in the stock market dive.

But alumni, students and the team — especially alumni — were having none of it. A vigorous campaign, which briefly included an eBay auction (six bids of $212,000 were received), coverage in Sports Illustrated and on SportsCenter, resulted in pledges of $2 million to keep swimming afloat for at least 10 years.

Thus inspired, Sanford and Simunovich churned their way to record and record-threatening seasons. Chang qualified for the Ivy League championships in the 100 and 200 butterfly.

Sanford, a junior who was a gold-medal winner on HPA's state championship team in 1998, set a school record of 2 minutes, 3.90 seconds in the 200-yard breaststroke that is nearly a second faster than the previous record.

His 56.99 in the 100 breaststroke is 5/100ths off the record and his 1:53.07 in the 200 individual medley also ranks No. 2 on Dartmouth's career list. Sanford swam the breaststroke leg on the 200 medley relay team that set a school record of 1:32.31 on March 1.

When the end of the team looked imminent, Sanford said: "It was surreal at first, that this thing that has been such a huge part of your life was not going to happen any more. I'm 21 and I've been competing since I was 8."

Simunovich, in her freshman year, recorded the second-fastest 200-yard freestyle (1:53.50) in Dartmouth history.

She ranks No. 4 on the school's all-time 100 freestyle list (53.28) and No. 8 on the 50 freestyle list (24.75). She was a member of a 400 freestyle relay team that set a Dartmouth record of 3:30.93.

"She was the cornerstone of every dual meet we had," coach Joann Brislin said. "She swam four events meet after meet after meet and produced huge points for us."

Simunovich said she would have remained at Dartmouth if the program had been scuttled. "It was a huge decision for me," she said. "I love Dartmouth and I love swimming, but I wasn't going to leave a great school for the sake of swimming."

This spring, Simunovich is the only freshman starting on Dartmouth's sixth-ranked women's water polo club team.

Sanford is taking a semester away from campus and volunteering at the Institute for Human Services in Honolulu.

He is an All-Ivy League academic honoree with his sights set on medical school at the University of Hawai'i after graduation in psychology next year.

If swimming had been dropped after this season, Sanford's school record in the 200 breaststroke would have stood for eternity.

"That would have been kind of cool," he said.