PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- The Simmons College women's swimming & diving team scored points in three events to sit in 12th place following the first day of competition at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship at the Rutgers Aquatic Center on the campus of Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J.
The Sharks tallied 39 points to trail Roger Williams University by three points and are a point ahead of Brandeis University. The United States Naval Academy currently sits in first place with 163.5 points in the meet, featuring NCAA Division I, II and III teams.
The Simmons 200-yard freestyle relay squad improved on its morning prelim time by almost a half second to post a mark of 1:40.05 to win the consolation final and place ninth overall. First year Emily Buttafuoco (Londonderry, N.H.) opened the race for the Sharks and was followed by sophomores Laura List (Bedford, Mass.) and Aine Scholand (Albuquerque, N.M.), and first year Maria Soraghan (East Hampstead, N.H.). Junior Kerry Fleming (Northampton, Mass.) helped the quartet qualify for the consolation final with a ninth-place showing in the prelims.
Scholand came right back to finish second in the consolation final of the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:00.06. Her time shaved more than a second off her prelims effort and was good for 10th overall for Simmons.
The Sharks capped the night by clocking in at 4:02.92 to finish second in the consolation final of the 400-yard medley relay and 11th overall, while improving on their morning time by more than four seconds. Fleming opened the race with the backstroke leg, followed by senior Natalie Giraldi (Bedford, N.H.) on the breaststroke and classmate Michaela Morris (Duxbury, Mass.) in the butterfly, before List pulled ahead of Le Moyne College in the final 100 yards on the freestyle anchor.
Junior Laura Simpson (Perkiomenville, Pa.) turned in a time of 5:20.45 to place 27th in the 500-yard freestyle preliminaries during the morning session, while junior Jason Erichsen (Banks, Ore.) finished 23rd in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:16.90. List was Simmons' top finisher in the 50-yard freestyle prelims with a time of 24.80 to place 30th, while Giraldi and Buttafuoco finished within a tenth of a second of each other with Giraldi touching the wall at 25.56 to place 50th and Buttafuoco a place after her. Soraghan registered a time of 25.77 to finish 53rd and Fleming posted a mark of 26.02 to place 58th.
The Sharks return to action for tomorrow's prelims at 10 a.m.