FULL RESULTS
Amherst, Mass. -- The Ephwomen walked away with the win today over rival Amherst to start off 2023. The final score was 195-105. With the win the Ephs also won the Little Three title having previously defeated Wesleyan. The meet was highlighted by 4 broken pool records: one in the 200 medley relay, Sophia Verkleeren's swims in the 100 backstroke and 200 IM, and Amanda Wager's swim in the 200 breaststroke. Eph head coach Steve Kuster shared his thoughts on the meet: "There were some outstanding performances today (breaking a bunch of pool records is always fun) and we are certainly happy with the final outcome. I think our future success hinges on getting more team members firing on all cylinders."
The meet opened with an electric 200 medley relay, with the team of Sophia Verkleeren '25 (26.53), Amanda Wager '23.5 (29.45), Samantha Kilcoyne '23.5 (24.33), and Irene Yang '26 (24.34) taking the win in a time of 1:44.65, breaking the pool record, previously held by Williams from 2020. The Williams quartet of Caitlin Murphy '24 (27.55), Charlotte Wishnack '25 (30.46), Emma Schulman '24 (25.68), and Zora Vujovic '25 (24.63) took 2nd place in a time of 1:48.32, beating the Amherst 'A' team by close to a second. Liz Ramoy '25 split 24.93 on the freestyle leg on the third Williams relay team.
In the distance events, Lily Codd '26 took the wins in both the 1000 and 500 freestyle. She won the 1000 freestyle in a time of 10:23.81, just 5.5 seconds off of her best time and her fastest time of the season by 3.5 seconds. Her 500 freestyle was blazingly fast in a time of 5:04.95. Frances Hayward '24 took second in both the 1000 and 500 freestyles with great in-season times, 10:37.23 in the 1000 and 5:08.47 in the 500. Emma Schulman '24 took third in the 500 freestyle to make it a 1-2-3 sweep in 5:10.49.Â
Verkleeren took the wins in the 100 back, 200 back, and 200 IM today. Her 100 back was lightning fast as she went 55.37 to break the previous pool record. Murphy was the only other swimmer under 1:00, taking second place in 59.48. Aly Eward '26 touched the wall in 1:01.25 for 4th place. Verkleeren won the 200 backstroke by over 10 seconds, cruising to a 2:01.30. She was incredibly consistent with splits of 28.73-30.85-30.83-30.89. In her final race, Verkleeren set a pool record of 2:04.77 in the 200 IM. Wishnack and Wager made it a 1-2-3 Williams sweep, finishing in 2:11.00 and 2:11.51. Wager split 35.88 on the breast leg.
On the boards, Emma Casey '23 and Adelaide Herman '25 demonstrated great perseverance as they fought through some tough dives, giving their best effort every time they got on the boards. Casey took third on 1m with a final score of 229.79 and Herman took fifth with a final score of 213.96. On 3m, Herman took third with a final score of 249.30 and Casey took fifth with a final score of 193.80.
Samantha Kilcoyne posted wins in the 50 and 100 freestyle with times of 24.12 and 52.57. In the 100, her win was propelled by a strong back half of 26.99. Yang took 5th in the 50 with a time of 24.88 and 4th in the 100 with a time of 54.40. In the 200 freestyle, Georgia Panitz '22.5 was just out touched for first place, swimming a gusty race of 1:55.43. Â
In the breaststroke races, the duo of Wager and Wishnack took 1st and 2nd. In the 100, Wager went 1:04.39 for first, and Wishnack touched the wall in 1:06.09 for second. Sarah Johnson '23.5 powered to the wall for fourth place in a time of 1:10.10. In the 200, Wager swam an electric 2:18.42 to break the Amherst pool record, previously held by Caroline White '20. Wishnack comfortably took second place in a time of 2:22.34. Maddie Annis '23 swam a great race for fourth place in a time of 2:28.91.Â
The Ephwomen butterfly group was on fire in the 200 fly, sweeping the top 3 spots. Schulman took the win in 2:06.43, Gabby Lopez-Ona '24 took second in her fastest in-season swim ever of 2:08.20, and Gracie O'Connell '26 took third in a time of 2:09.05. In the 100 fly, Kilcoyne took the win in a time of 55.57, 0.05 seconds off of the pool record she set in 2020. Lopez-Ona took second in another personal best in-season swim in a time of 57.93. O'Connell powered to fourth in a time of 59.68.
The meet closed with an incredibly close 400 freestyle relay. It was an extremely fun race to watch. The team of Panitz, Yang, Schulman, and Lopez-Ona was essentially tied with Amherst's 'A' relay after the third leg, after great splits from the first three legs (Panitz was 53.78, Yang was 53.69, and Schulman was 53.61). Lopez-Ona found a different gear, and slowly pulled further and further away from Amherst's anchor leg. She split an incredible 52.73 to take home the win for the Ephwomen. The team of Vujovic (55.93), Maddy Wu '26 (56.47), Amy Zhao '25 (54.60), and Rika Yahashiri '25 (55.04) won a closely contested race with Amherst's 'B' relay to take third place.Â
The Ephwomen return to competition next Saturday, January 14th at 1pm against Connecticut College at home. This competition is the Ephwomen's "Senior meet," where they will honor the graduating class.
