BOSTON, Mass. – Junior Jason Erichsen (Banks, Ore.) and sophomore Aine Scholand (Albuquerque, N.M.) each won three events to lead the Simmons College swimming & diving team over visiting Wellesley College, 167-132, this afternoon at the Holmes Sports Center Natatorium in Boston, Mass. The Sharks improve to 4-2 on the season, while the Blue fall to 1-1.
Simmons won the first five events of the day and 11 out of 16 for meet, while taking both first and second place spots in three different events.
The Sharks opened the meet by edging Wellesley in the 200-yard medley relay by just .36 seconds with Erichsen opening the race on the backstroke, followed by senior Natalie Giraldi (Bedford, N.H.) in the breaststroke leg, senior Michaela Morris (Duxbury, Mass.) swimming the butterfly clip and sophomore Laura List (Bedford, Mass.) closing out the winning relay with a freestyle sprint and a combined time of 1:54.43.
Scholand was dominant in the freestyle events and more specifically the distance races, giving Simmons a convincing win in the 1000-yard freestyle by just under 48 seconds with a mark of 10:46.97. First year Maria Soraghan (East Hampstead, N.H.) scored 22 points in the meet and got nine of them with a victory in the 200-yard freestyle on a time of 1:59.75, less than two seconds ahead of junior Laura Simpson (Perkiomenville, Pa.) to give the home team a one-two finish. Erichsen continued the Sharks' winning trend with a strong finish to win the 100-yard backstroke by nine tenths of a second with a time of 1:03.08. Giraldi made it five straight for the Sharks with a win in the 100-yard breaststroke after hitting the wall at 1:09.52. Simmons owned a 60-33 lead after five races, but the Blue won two of the next three events to close to within a dozen points.
Junior Jessie Feng (Princeton, N.J.) tallied nine of her team-high 18 points with a three-plus second win in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:16.10. Soraghan picked up her second win of the day for the Sharks, clocking in at 25.96 to win the 50-yard freestyle by a tenth of a second, while Wellesley took the second and third spots. The Blue swept the top three places on the one-meter diving board, led by senior Maura Sticco-Ivins (Framingham, Mass.), who broke her own Holmes Sports Center Natatorium record with a score of 295.85. First year Noelle Bergere (Madison, Conn.) (228.25) and junior Ingrid Henderson (Berkeley, Calif.) (199.25) followed her lead for Wellesley. First year Sara Manjikian (Belmont, Mass.) placed fourth for Simmons with a mark of 169.55, while sophomore Cristina Samaniego (Avon, Conn.) scored 132.30 points to finish fifth. Wellesley faced an 81-69 deficit at the midway point of the meet.
The teams traded the next two races with Scholand (55.86) topping List by just under a second to give the Sharks the top two spots in the 100-yard freestyle, before first year Emily Yeager (Pittsfield, Mass.) finished first in the 200-yard backstroke with a mark of 2:14.85 to help pull the Blue to within 103-85. It was the closest the visitors would come for the rest of the afternoon as Simmons won the next two events to open up a 130-96 cushion. Erichsen made it two wins on the day with a three-plus second margin in the 200-yard breaststroke on a time of 2:33.12, while Scholand outdistanced Simpson by more than 10 seconds on a time of 5:15.59 in the 500-yard freestyle for another one-two finish for the Sharks.
Wellesley answered by winning the next two events with a victory in the 100-yard butterfly by Feng on a time of 1:02.50 to win by almost four tenths of a second and Sticco-Ivins' second win on the diving board. She earned a victory in the three-meter event with a score of 288.65. Manjikian posted a season-best mark of 175.70 to finish second for Simmons. Henderson finished with 163.30 points to place third for Wellesley and Samaniego was fourth with a score of 145.35 for the hosts.
The Sharks held a 142-121 lead and won the final two events to secure the win. Erichsen won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:18.04, before Simmons took the 400-yard freestyle behind Soraghan, Scholand, Simpson and List's time of 3:44.91 to win by more than five seconds.
Simmons returns to the pool next Saturday, November 18 when it hosts University of New England at 1:00 p.m., while Wellesley travels to South Hadley, Mass. for a meet with Mount Holyoke College on the same day and time.