WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. -- Today, the Williams Women's Swim and Dive team hosted their first home meet of the 2022-23 season, where they took on Union College, ultimately winning 179-83. The Ephwomen won all 14 swimming and 2 diving events. Coach Steve Kuster shared his thoughts on the meet: "I thought today was the culmination of a really good week for the women."
The meet opened with the 200 medley relay, where the four teams of Ephwomen took the top 4 places. The team of Samantha Kilcoyne '23.5, Georgia Panitz '22.5, Emma Schulman '24, and Caitlin Murphy '24 brought home the win in 1:49.97. Notable splits include a 31.00 breaststroke leg by Charlotte Wishnack '25, a 31.16 breaststroke leg by Sarah Johnson '23.5, and a 24.71 freestyle leg by Murphy. Wishnack went on to win the 200 breaststroke in 2:26.03, followed by Maddie Annis '23 in 2:33.77.
The distance freestyle events - the 1000 and the 500 - were both won by Lily Codd '26 in times of 10:27.30 and 5:09.25. Her 1000 time was notably over 5 seconds faster than she swam at Springfield to open the season a couple of weeks ago. Joining Codd in the 500 was Amanda Wager '23.5 in 5:12.72 and Frances Hayward '24 in 5:14.85. Wager, who typically swims breaststroke events, swam a very consistent 500 for second place.
Earlier in the meet, Wager was in the pool for one of her primary events, where swam a very fast 1:04.99 100 breaststroke to win. Irene Yang '26 and Bainon Hart '24 both had great 100 breaststrokes, touching the wall in 1:09.16 and 1:10.08, respectively. Hart also took the win in the 200 backstroke, where she executed her race well in 2:12.03. Maddy Wu '26 also had a great 200 backstroke, touching the wall in 2:14.50.
On the diving side, Adelaide Herman '25 and Emma Casey '23 took full advantage of the opportunity to compete on the boards today, challenging themselves with their lineups after putting in a lot of hard work this week. They traded off wins: Casey took 1m with a final score of 242.85, followed closely by Herman with 237.14, and Herman took 3m with a final score of 234.37, followed closely by Casey with 227.17. In particular, Casey successfully executed 305b on 1m, and Herman was happy with her execution of multiple 3m dives.
In the sprint freestyle events, Zora Vujovic '25 won a tightly contested 50 freestyle in 24.99, and she was followed closely by Panitz in 25.11 and Murphy in 25.16 to round out the top three places. The Ephwomen also took the top three spots in the 100 freestyle, with Sophia Verkleeren '25 touching first in a fast 53.85, followed by Panitz in 54.26 and Schulman in 54.75. Earlier in the meet, Schulman won the 200 freestyle in a very quick 1:56.07, and the top 4 places went to Ephwomen: Hayward went 1:58.11, Gabby Lopez-Ona '24 went 1:59.38, and Ruby Groves '26 went 2:00.30.
It was a busy day for Schulman, as she also won the 100 butterfly in a well-executed 57.78. Lopez-Ona was the only other swimmer to dip under 1:00, as she touched the wall in 59.52. In the 200 butterfly, the duo of Kilcoyne and Gracie O'Connell '26 took the top two spots, with times of 2:06.17 and 2:08.90, respectively.
Verkleeren dominated the 100 backstroke, swimming a very fast 57.17 for the win. Aly Eward '26 swam into the wall for second place in 1:01.96. Verkleeren went on to win the 400 IM in another fast time of 4:29.89. Many Ephwomen took on the 400 IM: Wager, O'Connell, Wishnack, Yang, Annis, and Eward rounded out the top 7 places.
Finally, the meet concluded with the 200 freestyle relay, with the three teams of Ephwomen taking the first, second, and third place spots. Wu, Vujovic, Panitz, and Kilcoyne made up the first place team, who finished in a time of 1:39.12. The four fastest splits of the day were Vujovic (24.38), Panitz (24.88), Rika Yahashiri '25 (24.48), and Kilcoyne (23.96).
The Ephwomen return to competition next Saturday, December 10th for their final meet of the semester at Wesleyan University, where they will face Wesleyan, WPI, and Tufts.
