BOSTON, Mass. -- Junior diver Sara Manjikian (Belmont, Mass.) broke a 10-year old school record on the one-meter diving board as part of two wins on the day to lead the Simmons University women's swimming & diving team in a 188-112 loss to visiting Wellesley College this afternoon at the Holmes Sports Center Natatorium in Boston, Mass. The Sharks fall to 2-5 on the season, while the Blue improve to 2-0.
Wellesley won 12 of 16 events and placed among the top two spots in six events and the top three spots in one and saw a trio of competitors win a pair of events for the day. Simmons took the top two spots in a pair of events and had a pair of competitors win two events.
Manjikian broke the Sharks record to win the one-meter diving event, scoring 250.30 points to surpass the previous standard of 241.65, set by Kaira King in 2009. Manjikian tallied 227.55 points to top the field on the three-meter board as well. First year Lily Duff (Scituate, Mass.) placed second on both boards for Wellesley, scoring 237.20 points on the one-meter board and 203.95 in the three-meter event.
Senior Áine Scholand (Albuquerque, N.M.) won both distance events for Simmons and scored a meet-high 21 points. She led a one-two finish in the 1000-yard freestyle with a mark of 10:55.68, before first year Eva Piernas (Hopkinton, N.H.) clocked in at 11:25.09 to pull the home team to within 19-17 on the scoreboard, but it was as close as the Sharks would get for the remainder of the meet. Scholand cruised to a near nine-second victory in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:23.79. She also placed third in the 50-yard freestyle.
First year Katelyn Quinlan (Haverhill, Mass.) and sophomore Lauren Howard (Abington, Mass.) also contributed for the Sharks with eight points apiece. Quinlan finished second in both breaststroke events, including a personal-best time of 1:13.25 in the 100-yard event, while Howard was the runner-up in the 50-yard freestyle by just 11 one-hundreths of a second in addition to placing third in the 200-yard backstroke.
Sophomore Jessica Wegner (Taipei, Taiwan) (backstroke) and first years Elizabeth Park (Dix Hills, N.Y.) (breaststroke), Lydia Choi (Seoul, South Korea) (butterfly) and Shawyuan Hsu (Taipei, Taiwan) (freestyle) opened the meet with a win for Wellesley in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:53.15 to win the event by more than five seconds.
Wegner and Park also added a pair of individual wins in the meet with junior Hannan May (Cincinnati, Ohio) also touching the wall first twice for the Blue. Wegner finished first in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:01.56 and captured the top time in the 50-yard freestyle with a mark of 25.67. Park won both breaststroke events in dominant fashion, winning the 100-yard race with a time of 1:07.82 to win by nearly six seconds and later added a victory in the 200-yard event by over 11 ticks with a mark of 2:26.85. May touched the wall first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:59.21 for a three-plus second triumph, before winning the 100-yard freestyle at 55.01.
Wegner, Choi and Hsu joined senior Danielle Peterson (Livingston, N.J.) to win the 400-yard freestyle in a time of 3:42.99 to give the visitors a win in both relay races.
Senior Maggie Haley (Shady Side, Md.) won the 200-yard butterfly by more than six seconds with a time of 2:16.17 and added second-place showings in the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard individual medley for a 17-point effort for the Blue. Sophomore Shelby Ripp (Saint Louis, Mo.) took the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:20.97 for nine of her 16 points, while Hsu clocked in at 2:15.70 to win the 200-yard backstroke. Choi rounded out the winners for Wellesley, leading a one-two-three sweep of the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:01.27 to out-touch Haley by two one-hundreths of a second.
Simmons returns to action on Saturday, November 16 when it travels to Biddeford, Maine to take on University of New England at 12:00 p.m., while the Blue head to South Hadley, Mass. on November 23 to take on Mount Holyoke College at 1:00 p.m.