WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - January 10th marked Senior Day and the last home meet of the season for the Williams Women's Swim and Dive team, as they hosted long time rival Amherst College. With the stands full of family, friends and alum, the Eph women came to race hard and ultimately claimed victory by a large margin: 213 to 85.
Today showcased the depth of the Eph Women above all else. To start off, the 200 Medley Relay was swept by the Ephs. The A B and C teams all touched before the first Amherst Relay.
Following the 200 Medley Relay,
Lily Codd captured the 1000 freestyle in her last one at home. Teammate
Gracie O'Connell, also a senior, had a great swim as well. She touched the wall in under 11 minutes, claiming 3rd.
Esme Van Orden had a stellar 200 yard freestyle, posting her top unsuited time at Williams to date. She split the race very well, with a very consistent last three 50s. Amherst again claimed second, but
Carter Roebuck,
Clementine Robins and Izzy Espinosa claimed the 3rd, 4th and 5th positions.
Irene Yang and
Alden White went 1-2 in both backstroke races, the 100 and the 200. They showed strong front end speed and were able to back it up with grit towards the end of the races to get their hands on the wall.
On the breaststroke side of things,
Anna Doherty yet again claimed victory in the 100 and the 200. Similar to Van Orden in the 200 freestyle, Doherty's last three 50s were very consistent. Teammate
Bernadette Ramoy touched second to Doherty in the 100 breaststroke in a close race.
Lily Codd,
Ruby Groves and Izzy Castano swept the 200 butterfly yet again showing the depth of the Eph women, particularly in the butterfly events this year. Codd posted an outstanding time of 2:05.33.
In two exceptionally narrow sprint freestyle races,
Sophie Phelps touched first in both the 50 and the 100. Though she won by a narrow margin, Phelps dove in ready to command the race. She posted a time of 24.18 in the 50 and a 52.30 in the 100. In both races she out touched Amherst swimmer Sydney Thompson.
Junior
Ashley Loh had an impressive meet on both boards against tough mammoth competition, highlighted by her victory on 1 meter.
Codd took her third victory in the 500 yd freestyle to wrap up her individual swims for the day. She posted a 5:08.49, a very solid time. The 100 butterfly was won by Van Orden in a quick 56.58, followed by teammate and fellow first year
Maggie Farley.
To close out the individual races, the 200 IM was swept 1-2-3-4 by
Anna Doherty, Izzy Castano,
Ruby Groves and
Nora Sherman. Finally, the 400 freestyle relay saw a number of Eph women competing with noteworthy splits from
Clare McDermott,
Esme Van Orden and
Sophie Phelps.
This meet was a bittersweet one. Last home meet and Senior Day all against rival Amherst College. However, the Eph Women came ready to defend their pool and race hard, thinking especially about the senior class and their contributions to the team over the past four years. The Eph Women have a lot of racing ahead of them in the month of January and are looking to carry this momentum to capture some more victories against some tough upcoming competition.
