Clinton, NY – The Williams Women's Swim and Dive team traveled to Hamilton College today to take on Hamilton and Middlebury College, walking away with two wins (227-80 over Hamilton and 193-100 over Middlebury). Today's meet concluded their undefeated dual meet season, bringing their Division III dual meet win streak, which began in 2008, to 135 wins. Eph head coach Steve Kuster had the following to say about their season: "The women have been performing well all season and while it isn't a point of focus having another undefeated dual meet season and extending our D3 dual meet win streak to 135 (last loss in 2008) is truly impressive!"
The meet opened with the 200 medley relay. The Ephwomen made it a 1-2 punch. The team of Samantha Kilcoyne '23.5 (26.81), Charlotte Wishnack '25 (30.03), Sophia Verkleeren '25 (25.87), and Irene Yang '26 (24.85) combined for the winning time of 1:47.56. Brielle Gold '27 (27.70), Carter Roebuck '27 (30.93), Emma Schulman '24 (26.21), and Bernadette Ramoy '27 (25.23) were not far behind in 1:50.07.Â
The 1000 freestyle was the first individual event of the meet. It was won by Sophia Verkleeren '25 by a 13-second margin, as she went a personal best 10:31.49. She negative-split the race, making her move after the 500 mark, as her 50 split dropped from 31.85 to 30.45 at the 550. Lillian Bushway '24 touched the wall in third place, behind a swimmer from Middlebury, as she went 10:51.68. This was a new season best for Bushway. Finally, Ruby Groves '26 tried her hand at distance freestyle for the Ephs, swimming her second 1000 ever stopping the clock at 11:07.99.
Distance specialist Frances Hayward '24 took the win in the next event for the Ephs, winning the 200 freestyle by two seconds with a final time of 1:56.26. She swam a very evenly split race, with her two 100s being within a second of each other. Her final 50 was a very speedy 28.96. This is her fastest in-season swim while at Williams. Abi Greenberg '27 was the next highest-placing swimmer for the Ephs, swimming 1:58.66 for fourth place. Like Hayward, Greenberg also swam a very evenly split race, with her second 100 only being about 0.5 seconds slower than her first 100. Gracie O'Connell '26 was not far behind Greenberg, swimming 1:59.45 for sixth place. Her final three 50s were all within 0.4 seconds of each other. Zora Vujovic '25 swam to a lifetime best with her 2:02.97.
From there, the Ephwomen kicked off the 50s of stroke, races that are swum at NESCACs but aren't normally swum at dual meets, with the 50 backstroke. Samantha Kilcoyne '23.5 took the win with 26.45, a personal best. Williams' next highest finisher was Clementine Robins '27 who swam a 29.14 for eighth place. The Ephwomen dominated the next event, the 50 breaststroke, making it a 1-2-3 finish. Charlotte Wishnack '25 walked away with the win with her time of 31.14, followed closely by Brielle Gold '27 (31.16) and Amanda Wager '23.5 (31.26). Carter Roebuck '27 (32.13), Rika Yahashiri '25 (32.28), and Liz Ramoy '25 (32.28) also had great swims for fifth, eighth, and ninth.
Lily Codd '26 swam her first 100 fly for the Ephs today, touching the wall in first place with a 59.01. Irene Yang '26 made it a 1-2 finish for the Ephs with her time of 59.46. Bernadette Ramoy '27 was not far behind, stopping the clock at 1:00.50 for fourth place. Samantha Kilcoyne '23.5 took the win in the 50 freestyle for the Ephwomen, the final event before the first break of the meet. She stopped the clock at 24.46. Emma Schulman '24 was the next highest finisher for the Ephs with her 25.41 being good for fifth place.
Lily Codd '26 was back in the water for the Ephs in the first event after the break, winning the 100 freestyle with an impressive 54.11. Frances Hayward '24 stopped the clock in 55.55 for fifth place. In true distance swimmer fashion, both Codd and Hayward split their races very closely (Codd was 26.42/27.69 and Hayward was 27.40/28.15).
Clementine Robins '27 swam 1:00.24 for second place in the 100 backstroke, just 0.1 back from Middlebury's first-place finisher. Ruby Groves '26 was Williams' other swimmer in the race, putting up a valiant effort with her time of 1:04.73. In the 100 breaststroke, Carter Roebuck '27 led the way for the Ephs, stopping the clock at 1:09.27 to take third place behind two Middlebury swimmers. Irene Yang '26 claimed fourth place with a 1:10.54.
On the diving side of the pool, Ashley Loh '27 and Adelaide Herman '25 competed on 1m and 3m today for the Ephs. On 1m, the duo claimed the top two spots. Herman had a final score of 245.85 points and Loh had a final score of 234.55 points. On 3m, they repeated as the top two finishers, with Herman scoring 262.65 points and Loh scoring 234.10 points. Herman continued her pursuit of a Regionals qualifying score, falling just short on both boards.
One of the final events of the meet was the 500 freestyle. Gracie O'Connell '26 had a stellar swim, closing in on Middlebury's first-place finisher down the stretch and finishing just a few tenths back. This was just O'Connell's second-ever 500 freestyle for the Ephs. She swam a 5:14.28. Emma Dimter '27 swam her first 500 for the Ephs in 5:18.02 for third place.
In the second to last individual event of the meet, Williams claimed 1-2-3-4-6-7 in the 50 butterfly. Samantha Kilcoyne '23.5 took the win in 25.44, followed by Brielle Gold '27 in 26.55, Liz Ramoy '25 in 26.75, and Emma Schulman '24 in 26.85. Zora Vujovic '25 was the sixth-place finisher for the Ephs with a time of 27.16 and Bernadette Ramoy '27 was the seventh-place finisher for the Ephs with a time of 27.39.
Sophia Verkleeren lowered her own NESCAC record in the 100 IM, which previously stood at 58.19, swimming a very impressive 57.82. She led a large contingent of Ephwomen, who claimed nine of the ten fastest swims in the event today (a Middlebury swimmer got seventh place). This included Irene Yang '26 (1:00.42), Bernadette Ramoy '27 (1:00.43), Charlotte Wishnack '25 (1:00.80), Lily Codd '26 (1:01.96), Liz Ramoy '25 (1:02.02), Alden White '27 (1:02.55), Rika Yahashiri '25 (1:02.78), and Ruby Groves '26 (1:02.78).
The meet concluded with the 200 freestyle relay, which Williams won by about two seconds. The team of Carter Roebuck '27 (25.45), Emma Dimter '27 (24.24), Emma Schulman '24 (24.76), and Zora Vujovic '25 (24.18) combined for a time of 1:38.63. The Williams 'B' 200 freestyle relay touched the wall in sixth place. Frances Hayward '24 (26.29), Abi Greenberg '27 (25.64), Gabriella Lopez-Ona '24 (25.49), and Clementine Robins '27 (25.53) combined for a time of 1:42.95.
The Ephwomen return to competition next Friday at the Middlebury Invitational. This meet will consist of three sessions and kicks off the championship season for the Ephs.
