CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Senior Kerry Fleming (Northampton, Mass.) and junior Aine Scholand (Albuquerque, N.M.) each won events and helped win a relay event to lead the Simmons University women's swimming & diving team to a second-place effort following the second day of the New England Intercollegiate Swimming & Diving Men's and Women's Championship this evening at the Al '51 and Barrie Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center Pool on the campus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
The Sharks currently have 474.5 points to trail the meet leader Roger Williams University's total of 507.
Simmons began the evening finals session by winning the 200-yard freestyle relay with sophomore Maria Soraghan (East Hampstead, N.H.) leading off with a split of 25.63, before Scholand's 50-yard split of 24.36 gave the Sharks the lead for good in the event. Junior Laura List (Bedford, Mass.) turned in the quartet's fastest split and second-swiftest of the event at 23.97, before Fleming closed out the race with a clip of 24.16 to give Simmons a winning mark of 1:38.12.
Scholand came back in the very next event to pair with senior Laura Simpson (Perkiomenville, Pa.) and give the Sharks a 1-2 finish in the 500-yard freestyle. Scholand won the race by over 10 seconds with a time of 5:01.73, while Simpson's time of 5:12.07 served as the runner-up. Fleming captured the third Simmons gold of the night and fourth of the meet when she touched the wall first in the 200-yard backstroke on a time of 2:08.26. Senior Cassie Vietas (Tampa, Fla.) also scored in the event for the Sharks, finishing second in the consolation final and 10th overall with a mark of 2:20.40.
List sprinted to a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle for Simmons with a time of 24.72, while sophomore Olivia Walz' (Natick, Mass.) clocked in at 25.67 to place 14th overall and sixth in the consolation final of the event.
The Sharks saw four swimmers score in the 200-yard individual medley, led by senior Jason Erichsen's (Banks, Ore.) fifth-place showing on a time of 2:12.94. Sophomore Anna Leedham (Lowell, Mass.) posted a time of 2:18.60 to finish eighth. Senior Charlotte Rivard (Norwood, Mass.) and junior Alex Berg-Pappert (Geneva, N.Y.) each placed in the consolation final with Rivard placing fifth in the heat and 13th overall with a time of 2:24.94, just ahead of Berg-Pappert's 14th-place overall finish of 2:26.54.
Simmons won both consolation finals of the only events they didn't qualify for a final with senior Kara Smith (Eastham, Mass.) winning the consolation final of the 100-yard butterfly and placing ninth overall with a time of 1:02.09 and sophomore Elizabeth Bartlett (Richmond, Mass.) winning the consolation final to place ninth overall in the 50-yard breaststroke with a mark of 32.60. First year Savana Silva (Groveland, Mass.) placed fifth in the 100-fly consolation final for a 13th-overall placing on a time of 1:03.76 and sophomore Annie Lam (Natick, Mass.) registered a time of 33.03, which was good for 12th place overall in the 50-yard breaststroke.
The Sharks closed out the night with a third-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay. Fleming led off with the backstroke, followed by Erichsen's breastroke and Leedham's butterfly, before List anchored the relay with a freestyle that ended the quartet's race with a time of 4:05.15.
Simmons returns to the pool tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. for the day three preliminaries.