WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS --The Williams Women's Swim and Dive team were fired up to return to competition today as they kicked off the 2023-2024 season with a meet against Springfield College. This year, the Ephwomen are led by head coach Steven Kuster along with assistant swim coaches Allie Clark and James Singewald and assistant dive coach Brandon Pearson. Clark is entering her sixth year with the Ephs, while Singewald and Pearson are new additions to the coaching staff. Coach Kuster remarked "The team seemed really excited for our first meet and to compete. The energy was very good and there were certainly some positive results."
The Ephwomen started off their season with a bang with their win over Springfield (final score of 189-100). Williams won 15 of the 16 contested events. Today's win extends the Williams Women's Swim and Dive NCAA Division III dual meet win streak, which began in 2008, to 129 wins. Notably, eight first years added their names to the long list of Williams swimmers and divers who have contributed to this streak: Emma Dimter (free; Cherry Hill, N.J.), Brielle Gold (free/breast/fly/IM; Stamford, Connecticut), Abi Greenberg (free/fly/IM; New York, N.Y.), Ashley Loh (diving; Arcadia, California), Bernadette Ramoy (free/breast/fly/IM; Perry Hall, Maryland), Clementine Robins (free; Marblehead, MA), Carter Roebuck (free/breast/fly; Brooklyn, N.Y.), and Alden White (free/back/breast/IM; Wellesley, MA).
Speaking on the make-up of the team this year, Kuster said "I think there is a great combination of veterans who have been there before and newcomers/younger types eager to contribute to something big this year."
Williams started the meet off strong with the 200 Medley Relay, claiming the top three spots. The team of Samantha Kilcoyne '23.5 (26.64), B. Ramoy (30.51), Emma Schulman '24 (26.11), and Zora Vujovic '25 (25.30) came away with the win. Charlotte Wishnack '25 threw down the fastest breaststroke split in the field (30.26) on the second-place team of Ephs. Liz Ramoy '25 anchored the third-place team of Ephs with the fastest freestyle leg by an Ephwoman (24.58).Â
The first individual event of the meet was the 1000 freestyle, with four Ephs claiming the top four spots. Lily Codd '26 swam a very evenly split race for the win in a time of 10:33.80. In their Williams debuts, first-years Robins (10:46.84) and Roebuck (10:50.82) claimed the next two spots. Robins swim was highlighted by a very strong first half, while Roebuck had a very strong second half of the race to get her hand on the wall third. Frances Hayward '24 rounded out the quartet with a strong 10:52.32. The distance prowess of Williams was on further display later on in the meet when the duo of Schulman and Lillian Bushway '24 powered home to a 1-2 finish in the 500 freestyle with times of 5:14.70 and 5:22.86, respectively.Â
There were plenty of things to be excited about from the sprint freestylers today as well. Sophia Verkleeren '25 cruised to victory in the 200 freestyle with a well-split 1:54.18, with Dimter (1:58.27) and Amanda Wager '23.5 (1:59.59) claiming the next two spots. Dimter went on to win the 100 freestyle - her first ever individual win for the Ephs - in spectacular fashion, as she negative-split her race (53.73, 26.94/26.79). B. Ramoy had the early lead with a speedy 26.20 and she held on for third place. Also, L. Ramoy (25.26), Vujovic (25.38), and Amy Zhao '25 (25.66) were tightly bunched for 2-3-4 in the 50 freestyle.
On the diving side of the meet, Adelaide Herman '25 and first-year Loh made it a 1-2 Ephs sweep on both the 1m and 3m boards. They faced a strong Springfield contingent of five divers. Notably, Herman qualified for Regionals on the 1m board, and was just 0.25 away from qualifying on 3m. This is Herman's first time qualifying for Regionals on the 1m board. Regionals will take place in early March, and it is where divers compete to book their ticket to the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships in Greensboro, NC from March 20-23rd.Â
Back on the swimming side of the meet, Irene Yang '26 led the Ephwomen to a 1-2-3-4 finish in the 100 backstroke with a strong 59.00, the only swimmer in the field to break the 1:00 barrier. Caitlin Murphy '24 claimed second (1:00.16), followed by White (1:00.69) and Aly Eward '26 (1:01.27). Verkleeren cruised to victory in the 200 backstroke with a very well executed 2:02.78. Codd (2:12.02), Robins (2:14.10) and Eward (2:15.04) claimed the next three spots.
There were also many exciting swims in the breaststroke races today. Wager claimed the win in the 200 breast with a 2:19.19, followed by Wishnack (2:23.25) and Roebuck (2:24.82). Notably, Roebuck matched Wager on the second 100 of the race almost to the hundredth of a second. First-year Gold took her first ever win for the Ephs in the 100 breast with a speedy 1:06.53, followed by fellow first year B. Ramoy in 1:08.23.
The Ephwomen butterfliers put up some strong swims today. Kilcoyne won the 100 (56.65) and 200 (2:06.60) butterflies. She was joined by three teammates in the 200 butterfly, who all had fantastic swims: Schulman (2:09.24), Ruby Groves '26 (2:11.42), and Gracie O'Connell '26 (2:13.49). In the 100, she was joined under the 1:00 barrier by Gold (58.40), with a speedy first 50 of 26.82, and L. Ramoy (59.75).
The meet concluded with the 200 IM and the 200 freestyle relay. 6 Ephwomen competed in the 200 IM, with Wishnack (2:12.30) and Codd (2:12.77) taking the top two places. The team of Dimter (24.00), Vujovic (25.07), Verkleeren (23.87), and Kilcoyne (24.31) took the win in the 200 freestyle relay to end the meet, followed closely by the team of Yang (25.33), L. Ramoy (25.11), Roebuck (24.69), and B. Ramoy (24.59).Â
The Williams Women's Swim and Dive team returns to competition on December 9th at Wesleyan to compete against Wesleyan, Tufts, and WPI.
