WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. -- After three days of competition, the Simmons Sharks finished in 8th place as the swimming portion of the New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association Championships concluded Sunday evening. While final team scores are not complete until after the diving competition next weekend, the Sharks are well position to remain in the top ten with 527 points.
Freshman Maddy McDonald (Westwood, Mass.) led all Sharks with 59 points in her NEISDA debut finishing in the top eight in the 50 and 100 Freestyle events and a 13th place finish in the 50 Fly all with lifetime best times. Junior Amy Davis (Southbury, Conn.) added 48 individual points and swam to a top eight finish in the 50 Fly, a 13th place finish in the 100 Fly and a 15th place finish in the 200 Fly.
Senior Molly Bohannon (Deep River, Conn.) added 47 individual points and finished in the top sixteen in all three of her individual events, including an 11th place finish in the 1000 Free, 10th place in the 1650 Free and 13th in the 200 Fly. Sophomore Chloe Davis (Manchester, N.H.) also posted three top sixteen finishes in the 50 Back (16th), 200 Back (14th) and 400 IM (12th) events.
Freshman Kevyn Lee (New York, N.Y.) finished 15th in the 400 IM and 14th in the 1650 Free just behind teammate Rachel Chenard (Saco, Maine), who finished 13th in the distance event after dropping a full minute off her lifetime best time. Senior Anne Karasek (Brookline, Mass.) finished 15th in the 1650, just behind Chenard and Lee. Sophomore Joleigh Ferro (Pittsfield, Mass.) added 11 points for the Sharks for her top 16 finish in the 50 Free.
Simmons continued their season success in the relay events with four of the Sharks' five relays finishing in the top eight and setting two new school records. In the 200 Free Relay, Chloe Davis, Joleigh Ferro, Amy Davis, and Maddy McDonald finished 6th with a new school record of 1:43.17. In the 400 Medley Relay, Chloe Davis, Liz Zamagni (Chelmsford, Mass.), Amy Davis, and Maddy McDonald finished 7th and also set a second new school record of 4:19.59.
The 800 Free Relay team of Maddy McDonald, Amy Davis, Hillary Wong (Quincy, Mass.) and Chloe Davis finished 8th and the 200 Medley Relay of Joleigh Ferro, Liz Zamagni, Marissa Soucy (Mont Vernon, N.H.) and Hillary Wong finished 13th. In the 400 Free Relay, Amy Davis, Hillary Wong, Chloe Davis, and Maddy McDonald finished in a meet-high of 5th place, just .6 seconds behind UMass Dartmouth.
"It was an exciting weekend of fast swimming. The team broke two school records and posted a ton of best times. That's what we were hoping for, but there were still a lot of surprises," said Head Coach Mindy Williams. Last year Simmons finished 11th with 365 points, this year the team finished with 527 points and it looks promising that we'll finish in 8th after diving occurs. What an awesome stride for the program."
The Sharks must wait for their final team finish until after the NEISDA Diving Championships on February 16th and 17th.