BOSTON, Mass. – The Simmons University women's swimming & diving team won 12 of 16 events en-route to a 197-103 dual-meet victory over visiting Mount Holyoke College this afternoon at the Holmes Sports Center Natatorium on the campus of Simmons in Boston, Mass. The Sharks win their fifth straight meet to improve to 11-2 on the season, while the Lyons fall to 3-6.
Simmons received a pair of individual victories from four different swimmers. Senior Kerry Fleming (Northampton, Mass.) dominated the 1000-yard freestyle by over 22 seconds with a mark of 11:07.97 and later added a first-place effort in the 100-yard individual medley by four-plus seconds with a time of 1:03.92. Classmate Laura Simpson (Perkiomenville, Pa.) led a pair of 1-2-3 sweeps, claiming victory in the 200-yard freestyle with a mark of 2:00.90 and a 14-plus second win in the 500-yard freestyle with a 5:25.62 clip. Junior Laura List (Bedford, Mass.) out-stroked the field in the 50-yard backstroke with a winning time of 30.03 and also cruised to victory in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 56.10 to finish more than five seconds ahead of the field. First year Sarah Singleton (Mission Hills, Calif.) was the fastest in a 1-2-3 sweep of the 100-yard butterfly for the Sharks with a time of 1:02.93, before winning the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:06.00.
Fleming was part of two winning relays for Simmons, swimming the lead backstroke to open the meet in the 400-yard medley relay, followed by senior Jason Erichsen's (Banks, Ore.) breaststroke, Singleton's butterfly and the freestyle anchor from List to combine on a time of 4:13.23. Fleming anchored the 400-yard freestyle and was preceded by Simpson, Erichsen and senior Kara Smith (Eastham, Mass.) in a joint-effort time of 3:49.90.
Sophomore Elizabeth Bartlett (Richmond, Mass.) fueled one of five 1-2-3 event sweeps for the Sharks by winning the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 34.38, while Erichsen took the other breaststroke event for Simmons with a top time of 1:13.97 in the 100-yard race to pace another 1-2-3 sweep.
Mount Holyoke was unmatched in the diving events, sweeping both the one and three-meter boards. Junior Samantha Nemivant (Scottsdale, Ariz.) won on the one-meter board with a six-dive score of 257.15, but was edged out by six tenths of a point on the three-meter board by sophomore teammate Katie Kolozsvari's (Danville, Ind.) score of 240.70. First year Kathryn Murphy (Fairport, N.Y.) was less than seven points behind for third place for the visitors. Five addition exhibition dives were executed on both boards for an 11-dive score and Kolozsvari broke the Holmes Sports Center Natatorium record on both boards. She racked up 405.10 points to eclipse the 2017 standard set by Regis (Mass.) diver Elisabeth McQuaid and her total of 415.95 broke the former mark set by Simmons' Amanda Dirksmeier in 2010.
Sophomore Tamara Mukulu (Nairobi, Kenya) was the top point-scorer for the Lyons with 17 points, including a first place showing in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.55. She also added second-place finishes in the 50-yard butterfly and the 100-yard individual medley. Sophomore Naomi Brown won the 50-yard butterfly for Mount Holyoke with a time of 28.39 to edge out Mukulu by less than two tenths of a second.
The Sharks return to the pool on Friday, February 1 when they defend their title at the three-day Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship at 6:30 p.m. at the Holmes Sports Center, while the Lyons host Smith College in their season finale on February 9 at 1:00 p.m.