PLYMOUTH, N.H. - Junior Alison Gauvin (Whitefield, Maine) placed first on the one and three-meter diving boards to score 18 points and lead the Simmons College women's swimming & diving team to a 177-103 victory in a dual meet over host Plymouth State University this afternoon in Plymouth, N.H. The Sharks improve to 6-1 on the season, while the Panthers fall to 4-3.

Gauvin qualified for the New England Intercollegiate Swimming & Diving Association Championship meet with a career-high score of 172.28 points on the one-meter board to place first for Simmons. She later tallied 158.17 points on the three-meter board to take home her second first place effort of the afternoon. Sophomore Rebecca McCune (Hatboro, Pa.) placed second on the one-meter board with a personal-best score of 86.03 points.

First year Kerry Fleming (Northampton, Mass.) and sophomore Natalie Giraldi (Bedford, N.H.) each scored 13 points for the Sharks with a first and second place showing each. Fleming won the 50-yard freestyle with a mark of 26.91, while Giraldi hit the wall first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:52.47 to win the event by more than 11 seconds. Both swimmers were a part of the team's winning 200-yard medley relay squad. Fleming led off the race, followed by Giraldi, sophomore Michaela Morris (Duxbury, Mass.) and junior anchor Miriam Swisher (Albuquerque, N.M.), who hit the wall for the quartet at 1:58.02.

Swisher later won the only event she entered for Simmons, clocking in at 2:16.76 in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing just over a second off the school-record pace. First year Laura Simpson (Perkiomenville, Pa.) and junior Julie Nguyen (Salem, Mass.) each captured first place finishes for the Sharks. Simpson won the 100-yard backstroke by more than four seconds in 1:08 flat, while Nguyen cruised to a near six-second victory in the 1000-yard freestyle with a mark of 12:17.90.

Simpson, who led off and Nguyen, who swam the third leg, were joined by Simmons juniors Sarah Price (New York, N.Y.) and anchor Jordan Mattheisen (Seattle, Wash.) in a first place effort in the 400-yard freestyle on a time of 4:01.21 to win by more than 11 seconds.

First years Julia Mazza (Belchertown, Mass.) and Julia West (Wiscasset, Maine) along with sophomore Addie Schumaker (Haymarket, Va.) all scored 18 points with a pair of first place finishes to lead Plymouth State.

Mazza won the 100-yard freestyle by almost seven seconds with a time of 1:00.39 and topped all swimmers with a mark of 1:05.17 in the 100-yard butterfly for a first place showing by more than two and a half seconds earlier in the meet. West won the 50-yard backstroke by 2.52 seconds with a time of 30 seconds flat and later hit the wall first in the 50-yard butterfly with a time of 29.78. Schumaker swept the breaststroke events, winning the 50-yard race in 34.76, before taking the 100-yard circuit in 1:16.44. 

First year Deanne DeGrazia (Westport, Mass.) also scored with a first-place effort for the Panthers, winning the 200-yard freestyle in 2:12.45.

The Sharks return to action tomorrow when they head to Standish, Maine to swim against Saint Joseph's College at 1:00 p.m., while Plymouth State hosts University of Saint Joseph (Conn.) on January 16 at 1:00 p.m.