Complete Results
Williamstown, Mass.-- In the 2013 home opener
at Muir-Samuelson pool women's swimming and diving came away with
an emphatic win over archrival Amherst 187-107.The win was the
fifth straight by the Eph women over Amherst and improved their
overall record against Amherst to 32-4.
Behind strong performances from the entire roster the Ephs were
able to capture ten out of sixteen event wins to outlast their
opponents both in the pool and on the diving boards. With the win
Williams moves to 4-1 on the season, while Amherst suffers their
first loss to match the Ephs at 4-1.
Williams set the tone early in capturing a win in the opening
medley relay. Moving onto the individual events the Ephs were able
to keep up the pressure behind a series of impressive performances.
First year Katie
Bennett led the way in the backstroke events for the Ephs,
capturing first place in both the 100 yd and 200 yd distances. In
the 100 Bennett touched first in a time of 59.21, just ahead of her
teammate, junior Stephanie
Nguyen (59.68). In the 200 Bennett would increase her margin of
victory to over three seconds, finishing in 2:07.16. Nguyen would
place second (2:10.28) while sophomore Tess
Vorselen completed the Williams sweep in 2:11.11.
Senior Caroline
Wilson also turned in a series of strong swims, winning both
the 200 yd freestyle (1:50.12) and 200 yd breaststroke (2:23.40).
In the freestyle Wilson was locked in a tight race with sophomore
Sarah
Thompson until the very end, just outstretching her teammate at
the wall to finish a scant 15 hundredths ahead of the charging
Thompson. Not kept down for long, Thompson would bounce back with
an event win of her own in the 500 yd freestyle, finishing over 12
seconds ahead of her nearest competitor in 5:01.18.
Williams got contributions from all portions of their roster,
veterans and rookies alike. Senior Kelsey
Roggensack took charge in the 200 yd butterfly, winning the
event with a time of 2:08.14. First year Paige
Haller would place second in the event (2:09.07). Fellow rookie
Breanna
Nguyen earned a win in the 100 yd breaststroke, surging ahead
in the final fifty yards to finish first in 1:06.19. In the 1000 yd
freestyle senior Kate O'Leary came into the wall just ahead of
classmate Rebecca
Maher in a 1-2 finish for the Ephs. Leary completed the
grueling distance with a time of 10:38.50 while Maher was not far
behind in 10:39.84. O'Leary followed up this performance with a
second place finish in the 200 yd individual medley (2:09.30), just
23 hundredths behind the eventual winner.
While unable to pick up any individual victories, the Williams
sprinters performed extremely well in both the 50 and 100 yd
freestyle. First year Emma Nuzzo
took second place in both events, finishing in 24.55 and 53.39
respectively. Senior Bryn
Dunbar placed 4th in the 50 (24.74) and
3rd in the 100 (53.46) while first year Faye
Sultan took 3rd the 50 (24.60) and turned in a time
of 54.85 in the 100. Breanna Nguyen would just outpace Sultan in
the 100 to take 5th (54.09).
In the diving events junior McKenzie
Murdoch bounced back from a tough loss in the 1m springboard to
earn an convincing victory on the 3m board. Murdoch scored 275.5 in
the 3m competition, over 15 points better than her 1m score
(259.35). Sophomore Michelle
Higgins placed second in the 3m (257.55) and third in the 1m
(247.80).
Head coach Steve Kuster was pleased with the result of the meet,
stating that "The women swam very well tonight." Still, however, he
also notes that there is a lot of work left to be done over the
course of the season. "I think one thing that showed up here is
that although we have a small team, it's a small team of people who
can all make big impacts in a meet. It's a great win and the team
has all been swimming and diving really well. The challenge with a
small team like this though is that there's little room for error,
so we've got to maintain this strong mentality for the rest of the
season." The women will next travel to MIT to take on the Engineers
on Friday January 11th, looking to continue their
impressive run of form this season against the perennial NEWMAC
powerhouse.
