WORCESTER, Mass. -- Senior Aine Scholand (Albuquerque, N.M.) won a pair of individual events to lead the Simmons University women's swimming & diving team in a quadruple dual-meet this evening at host Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass. at the WPI Sports & Recreation Center. The Sharks defeated Smith College, 171.5-126.5, but fell to WPI, 203-95, Brandeis University, 148-141 and Babson, 166-123.
Scholand won both distance events for Simmons, touching the wall first in the 1000-yard freestyle with a mark of 10:56.86 to win the event by more than 20 seconds and later placed first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:22.32 by over six seconds. First year Eva Piernas (Hopkinton, Mass.) finished fourth in both events for the Sharks, defeating both Brandeis and Smith with a time of 11:31.32 in the 1000-yard race, while her time of 5:36.89 also topped Brandeis and Smith.
Senior Laura List (Bedford, Mass.) finished among the top four in three different events for Simmons. List placed third in both freestyle sprint events, touching the wall in third place with a time of 25.56 in the 50-yard freestyle, which topped both Brandeis and Smith. In addition, she finished third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 56.64 to best WPI and Smith. Her time of 29.53 earned her fourth place in the 50-yard backstroke to finish ahead of both Brandeis and Smith.
Junior Sara Manjikian (Belmont, Mass.) led the Simmons divers, placing second on the three-meter board with a score of 200.85 points with sophomore Natalie Krieg (Cambridge, Mass.) finishing third with a score of 185.50 on the board. Senior Cristina Samaniego (Avon, Conn.) was just behind Krieg with 182.35 points to place fifth. Manjikian added a second-place effort on the one-meter board with a score of 214.10 earlier in the night.
Junior Olivia Walz (Natick, Mass.) finished fifth for the Sharks in the 200-yard freestyle, turning in a time of 2:05.96, which placed ahead of Smith. Sophomore Sarah Singleton (Mission Hills, Calif.) also finished ahead of Smith in the 100-yard backstroke with a mark of 1:07.35, while first year Meg Driscoll (Haverhill, Mass.) clocked in at 5:06.01 in the 400-yard individual medley to top all swimmers from Brandeis.
Simmons closed out the night with a fourth-place showing in the 400-yard freestyle relay behind Walz, who took the opening leg, followed by first year Katie Quinlan (Haverhill, Mass.), sophomore Lauren Howard (Abington, Mass.) and Scholand, who anchored the race and touched the wall at 3:52.22.
The Sharks opened the meet by placing fifth in the 400-yard medley relay. List swam the lead backstroke leg, ahead of Driscoll's breaststroke , Singleton's butterfly and Howard's freestyle, which capped the quartet's race with a time of 4:20.26.
Simmons returns to action on Saturday, November 9 when it hosts Wellesley College at 1:00 p.m.