WINTHROP, Mass. – Simmons College's Miriam Swisher (Albuquerque, N.M.) has been named the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Athlete of the Week for the week of November 28 to December 4, it was announced today by the league.
Swisher also earned the award for the week of October 24-30 and has been named the conference's top weekly swimming & diving athlete 18 times during her career.
The senior was the only competitor to win all four of her individual events at last weekend's GNAC Women's Swimming & Diving Championships and helped the Sharks to a pair of relay wins as well. She led the Sharks to their 13th straight conference crown. The New Mexico native broke four GNAC individual records and helped Simmons set new standards in a pair of relay events as well. Swisher has never lost a race she has entered at the GNAC Championships and cemented her dominance in freestyle and backstroke events, beginning with a first-place effort in the 50-yard freestyle on a GNAC-record time of 23.87 on the first day of competition. The La Cueva High School product later broke her own league and Holmes Sports Center Natatorium marks in both the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke. She clocked in at 1:55.54 in the freestyle event and touched the wall at 2:09.46 to shatter the former GNAC backstroke standard by more than five and a half seconds. Swisher capped the first day of the meet by sparking the Sharks to a GNAC-record time of 4:06.89 in the 400-yard medley relay, which also doubled as a pool record, by turning in a backstroke leadoff 100-yard split of 1:00.28, which was also good for a league record. Swisher won the 100-yard freestyle by more than a second, on day two of the meet, with a time of 52.52 and swam the anchor leg of the 800-yard freestyle relay in the last GNAC Championship event of her career to give Simmons a conference and pool-record time of 8:01.03.
Swisher has won all 16 individual events that she's entered this season, including her first-ever entry in the 1000-yard freestyle vs. Babson College on November 15. The standout has earned victories in the 200-yard freestyle (four), the 100-yard backstroke (three), the 200-yard backstroke (three), the 100-yard freestyle (two), the 50-yard freestyle (two) and the 50-yard backstroke this season, while also helping the Sharks to victory in 11 relay events in her final year of competition.
An Exercise Science major, Swisher has made a place for herself in history as Simmons' greatest swimmer of all time being named the GNAC Swimming & Diving Athlete of the Year twice. She has racked up 102 top-three efforts, while placing first 94 times during her career. She currently holds six individual school records and has been a part of five school relay team standards in addition to a claim of seven pool standards. Swisher earned the Bruce Hutchinson Female Swimmer of the Meet award after winning a pair of events in school-record times at last season's New England Intercollegiate Swimming & Diving Association Championships from February 12-14, 2016 and earning All-NEISDA status in seven events, including four relay races. She claimed the 200-yard freestyle in a meet-record time of 1:52.85 to better the former mark from 1993, while capturing the title in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:03.85 to become the first competitor in school history to win multiple events at NEISDA. She has earned All-NEISDA status in 18 events during her career and has earned 14 GNAC Individual Championships during her tenure, while owning 11 GNAC records.
The Sharks are currently 6-0 on the season for one of the best starts in school history and will return to the water after the New Year, when they host Plymouth State University on Saturday, January 7 at 11:00 a.m. in the Holmes Sports Center Natatorium.