BOSTON, Mass. - First year Laura Simpson (Perkiomenville, Pa.) set a school record and junior Miriam Swisher (Albuquerque, N.M.) won three events to lead the Simmons College women's swimming and diving team in a 195-98 loss to visiting Wellesley College this afternoon at the Holmes Sports Center Natatorium in Boston, Mass. The Sharks fall to 3-1 on the season, while the Blue win their first dual meet of the season.
Simpson won multiple events for Simmons, taking the 500-yard freestyle with a school and pool-record time of 5:19.43. She eclipsed the former 16-year old benchmark by seven one-hundreths of a second to better Cindy Hoffman's effort from 1999. Simpson also won the 1000-yard freestyle by almost 55 seconds with a time of 11:08.76. Swisher led the Sharks and all competitors with three individual victories on the day. She hit the wall first in the 200-yard freestyle by more than three seconds with a time of 1:57.69 and followed that effort with a first-place showing in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.01. Swisher also won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:14.69 to give her 21 points on the afternoon. Junior Emmie Lindholm (Sterling, Mass.), sophomore Natalie Giraldi (Bedford, N.H.) and Kerry Fleming (Northampton, Mass.) each tallied seven points for Simmons with a second and third place showing on the day.
Wellesley broke five pool records, including a pair by sophomore diver Maura Sticco-Ivins (Framingham, Mass.). Sticco-Ivins tied for the team lead with 18 points, winning the one-meter diving event with a pool-record score of 294.07, eclipsing the former mark by nearly 30 points. She later set a new pool standard on the three-meter board with a mark of 319.50 to bury the former record by more than 63 points.
Senior Erin Yang (Holmdel, N.J.) also racked up 18 points for Wellesley and easily won the 400-yard individual medley with a pool-record time of 4:40.42 to wipe out the old mark by more than 13 seconds. Earlier in the meet, Yang won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:12.61. Classmate Dorothy Ren (San Jose, Calif.) set a pool record of her own when she hit the wall first in the 100-yard backstroke with a clip of 59.96 as the first swimmer to crack the minute-barrier at the Holmes Sports Center. Ren later won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 59.23. Senior Charlotte Harris (Cincinnati, Ohio) also won a pair of events for the Blue, winning both breaststroke events. Harris won the 200-yard event with a mark of 2:31.24 after clocking in at 1:09.26 to capture the 100-yard race.
The other individual first place finish for the day went to Wellesley first year Cathy Chen (Parsippany, N.J.), who won the 100-yard freestyle by just 0.17 seconds with a time of 55.80.
The Blue capped the meet with another pool record, winning the 200-freestyle relay behind lead leg sophomore Patricia Chen (Natick, Mass.), senior Ieva Galinyte (Irvine, Calif.), first year Crystal Zhu (Chelmsford, Mass.) and anchor leg Cathy Chen in a time of 1:40.83. Wellesley opened the meet with a relay victory as well, courtesy of Ren, Harris, first year Cathy Ye (Vancouver, B.C.) and anchor Cathy Chen, who helped the squad finish first in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:50.90.
Simmons returns to action on Saturday, November 21 when it hosts University of New England at the Holmes Sports Center at 1:00 p.m., while the Blue travel to Hartford, Conn. to compete in a quad meet on the same day vs. Trinity College, Clark University and Hamilton College.