ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Simmons College women's swimming & diving team's 400-medley relay team placed seventh to pace the Sharks to an 11th-place standing out of 37 schools after day one of the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship finals at host United States Naval Academy's Lejeune Hall in Annapolis, Md.

Simmons scored 36 points on the first day of the ECAC Championships to stand tied with Division II Le Moyne College and place one point behind Division I Harvard University. The Sharks are the highest-scoring Division III team in the meet to this point.

The Sharks posted a time of 4:00.99 to move past Division I Bucknell University and was the highest finishing Division III school in the event. Junior Miriam Swisher (Albuquerque, N.M.) opened the race in the backstroke leg, followed by sophomores Natalie Giraldi (Bedford, N.H.) in the breaststroke length and Michaela Morris (Duxbury, Mass.) in the butterfly leg. First year Kerry Fleming (Northampton, Mass.) swam the freestyle anchor to put Simmons almost one and a half seconds head of Bucknell to close out the women's events for the night. 

The Sharks also competed in the 200-yard freestyle relay to open the evening. Junior Sarah Price (New York, N.Y.) opened the event for Simmons, followed by Giraldi and first year Laura Simpson (Perkiomenville, Pa.). Fleming swam the anchor leg for the Sharks and clocked a 25.12 in the final 50 yards to help the Sharks surge past Frostburg State University to an 11th-place showing by just two one-hundreths of a second with a mark of 1:42.53 to give Simmons the best time of any Division III school in the event.

The Sharks will be in action again tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. competing in the 200-medley relay to begin the morning's preliminaries.