BOSTON, Mass. – Sophomore Shylee Stewart (Eastham, Mass.) won three individual events to lead the Simmons College women's swimming & diving team to a victory over visiting Western New England University, 203-67, this morning at the Holmes Sports Center Natatorium on the campus of Simmons College. The meet had been re-scheduled from Saturday, due to a snowstorm. The Sharks win their fifth straight meet and improve to 10-2 on the season, while the Golden Bears fall to 3-3.
Simmons placed first in 13 of the 15 events and swept the top three places in six of them.
Stewart began the meet by swimming the second leg of the Sharks' winning 200-yard medley relay team, joining senior Joleigh Ferro (Pittsfield, Mass.), first year Michaela Morris (Duxbury, Mass.) and sophomore Miriam Swisher (Albuquerque, N.M.) to post a time of 1:57.74. Stewart later won both the 50 and 100-breaststroke events with times of 32.90 and 1:10.90, respectively. She capped the day with a first-place showing in the 100-individual medley on a personal-record time of 1:05.98.
Swisher won both individual events that she entered with a winning mark of 25.94 in the 50-free to lead a Simmons' sweep of the event. Sophomore Sarah Price (New York, N.Y.) placed second with a mark of 27.54, while first year Baylee Carroll (Massena, N.Y.) finished third in 28.31. Swisher also hit the wall first in the 100-freestyle with a time of 56.85.
Ferro, Morris and senior Chloe Davis (Merrimack, N.H.) all recorded first place finishes and added a second place effort to their respective mornings for the Sharks. Ferro finished first in the 50-backstroke with a time of 31.07 and Morris placed second at 32.47. Senior Kara Silva Reading, Mass.) took third with a mark of 33.76 to give Simmons the sweep. Ferro also finished second in the 100-freestyle with a time of 58.17. Morris won the 500-freestyle by clocking a career-best 5:57.09 to lead a Simmons sweep of the race that saw the top three finish within two seconds of each other. Junior Rachel Chenard (Saco, Maine) finished less than two-tenths of a second behind Morris at 5:57.18 and sophomore Emilie Lindholm (Sterling, Mass.) touched the wall just over a second later at 5:58.66 to place third for the home team. Davis finished her day with a second-place showing in the 100-individual medley on a time of 1:08.63.
Senior Hillary Wong (Quincy, Mass.) and junior Kevyn Lee (New York City, N.Y.) won a race each for the Sharks as well. Wong topped the field in the 200-freestyle with a time of 2:07.35 as part of a Simmons sweep. First year Lindsay Nichols (Kennebunk, Maine) earned one of her two second-place efforts for the day with a time of 2:13.82, while junior Kirsten Vickey (Taunton, Mass.) came in less than two seconds later with a personal-best 2:15.18 to finish third. Lee's first-place showing came in the 1650-freestyle, where she won by over 24 seconds with a time of 20:15.44 as part of a sweep for the Sharks. Lindholm checked in at 20:39.77 and sophomore Christina Burns (Westford, Mass.) clocked a personal-record 21:04.24 to place third.
Price, first year Natalie Giraldi (Bedford, N.H.), Carroll and Lindholm combined to record a time of 1:52.00 to capture the 200-freestyle relay to end the day for Simmons.
First year diver Leyan Li (Deerfield, N.H.) scored a career-high 158.65 points to win the one-meter diving event for the Sharks.
First year Erika Sheinhait (Framingham, Mass.) led Western New England with first and second-places finishes, while senior Nicole Birchenough (Lowville, N.Y.) placed in three different events, including a first-place effort. Sheinhait won the 100-butterfly by almost four seconds with a time of 1:04.97 and later took third in the 100-freestyle with a mark of 58.94. Birchenough won the 50-butterfly in 30.12 for the visitors.
Simmons will swim again on Saturday, January 31 when it hosts Plymouth State University at 1:00 p.m. in the final home meet for the program's seniors, while the Golden Bears return to the pool on the say day to host University of Saint Joseph (Conn.) at 12:00 p.m.