BOSTON, Mass. – Sophomore Miriam Swisher (Albuquerque, N.M.) finished first in three events and helped the Simmons College women's swimming & diving team set a pool record in a relay as part of a tri-meet sweep this afternoon at the Holmes Sports Center Natatorium on the campus of Simmons in Boston, Mass. The Sharks defeated visiting Colby-Sawyer College (175-94) and Regis College (197-54) to improve to 9-2 on the season, while Colby-Sawyer defeated Regis' women's team, 173-85 and is now 4-2 on the season. The Pride are 2-4. The Regis men defeated the Chargers, 145.5-81.5 to up its record to 5-0-1, while Colby-Sawyer falls to 0-6.
Simmons won 10 of 15 events in the tri-meet.
Swisher opened the meet by swimming the opening leg of the 400-yard medley relay ahead of Simmons teammates Shylee Stewart (Eastham, Mass.), Michaela Morris (Duxbury, Mass.) and Chloe Davis (Merrimack, N.H.) as part of a 4:09.83 mark to win the event and set a new pool record, eclipsing the former mark held by Swisher, Natalie Giraldi (Bedford, N.H.), Morris and Davis by .42 seconds.
Swisher won the 50-yard backstroke for the Sharks with a mark of 28.66, before taking the 200-backstroke with a personal-best time of 2:16.70. She finished her afternoon with a victory in the 100-individual medley with a personal-record time of 1:05.41.
Morris also performed well for Simmons. The first year led a Simmons sweep of the 200-butterfly with a personal-best time of 2:21.66 to finish ahead of classmate Lindsay Nichols's (Kennebunk, Maine) time of 2:30.89. Sophomore Hannah Plourde (Westfield, Mass.) was right behind for a third-place showing for the Sharks with a mark of 2:31.25. Morris also took the 50-butterfly with a time of 28.35, before closing out the meet with a second-place effort in the 100-individual medley with a personal-record mark of 1:06.38.
Giraldi, Stewart and sophomore Emilie Lindholm (Sterling, Mass.) also won individual events over both Colby-Sawyer and Regis for Simmons. Lindholm earned a win in the 1000-freestyle with a time of 12:16.08, while Giraldi captured the 50-breaststroke at 31.93. Stewart touched the wall first in the 100-freestyle with a mark of 55.61 as part of a Sharks' sweep of the race. Davis finished second at 57.32 and sophomore Sarah Price (New York, N.Y.) was right behind with a time of 57.54.
Giraldi and Davis joined senior Joleigh Ferro (Pittsfield, Mass.) and Stewart to comprise the winning 400-freestyle relay squad for Simmons with a time of 3:47.83.
Colby-Sawyer took first and second place in the 200-freestyle, led by junior Elaine Miller's (Windham, Maine) time of 2:04.70 to just out-touch senior teammate Krystyna Estrada (Lebanon, N.H.), who was just seven one-hundreths of a second behind at 2:04.77. Estrada later won the 50-freestyle for the Chargers with a mark of 25.58 to edge out Davis for the Sharks, who came in at 26.29. First year Anna Gaskill (Brattleboro, Vt.) finished first in the 500-freestyle for Colby-Sawyer with a time of 5:43.55, which defeated Simmons junior Kevyn Lee (New York City, N.Y.) by less than a second at 5:44.51. First year Makenzie Welch (Torrington, Conn.) racked up a pair of second-place showings for the Chargers, clocking in at 30.40 in the 50-backstroke and at 2:17.99 in the 200-backstroke. Junior Samantha Dalphond (Chelmsford, Mass.) led the diving, scoring 221.25 points on the one-meter board to win the event for Colby-Sawyer.
Senior Haley Bowen (Litchfield, N.H.) led Regis with a first-place effort in the 200-breaststroke on a time of 2:34.39 to place ahead of Giraldi for Simmons' time of 2:38.26. Bowen also took home a second-place finish in the 50-breaststroke with a mark of 32.78.
Freshman Nick Rainville (Reading, Mass.) and sophomore Kiet Luong (Malden, Mass.) led the Regis men to the victory with three first-place finishes each. Luong led the winning 400-medley relay for the Pride, combining with seniors A.J. Graf (Newton, Mass.) and Greg Sarantakis (Lowell, Mass.), along with sophomore Cassidy Bastinelli (Newton, Mass.) to post a time of 4:00.20. Luong later won the 50-backstroke with a mark of 26.93, less than two-tenths of a second ahead of Bastinelli's time of 27.09. Luong won the 200-backstroke by almost 13 seconds with a mark of 2:01.86 and took the 50-butterfly with a time of 24.82, just ahead of Graf's time of 25.26. Rainville captured the 200-freestyle for Regis with a time of 1:56.76 as well as the 200-butterfly in 2:14.08. His time of 51.76 was a half second better than Colby-Sawyer sophomore Brett Cayer's (Newinton, Conn.) effort of 52.26 to win the event.
Graf won a pair of events for the Pride, hitting the wall first with a time of 29.09 in the 50-breaststroke, while winning the 50-freestyle in 23.17 to edge out Cayer for the Chargers at 23.93. Freshman Michael Bruno (Winthrop, Mass.) cruised to a 1000-freestyle win with a time of 11:08.59 for Regis, while Bastinelli dominated the 500-freestyle, winning by almost 17 seconds with a mark of 5:08.56.
Senior Justin Banos (Essex Junction, Vt.) led the Colby-Sawyer men with a first-place showing in the 200-breaststroke, clocking in at 2:36.15 to win by more than 12 seconds. He also tacked on a pair of third-place finishes, coming in at 30.81 in the 50-breastroke behind second-place finisher and freshman teammate Mason Amitrano's (West Greenwhich, R.I.) time of 30.71. Banos turned in a mark of 28.51 in the 50-butterfly as well. Sophomore Jameson Ploch's (Old Town, Maine) time of 1:05.36 was the best among eligible scorers in the 100-individual medley for the Chargers. Banos, sophomore Josh Paszczuk (Newington, Conn.), Amitrano and Cayer finished the meet with a spirited first-place finish in the 400-freestyle relay with a time of 3:32.62.
Simmons returns to action on Saturday, January 24 when it hosts Western New England University at 12:00 p.m., while Colby-Sawyer heads to Wenham, Mass. on the same day to take on Gordon College at 1:00 p.m. Regis is also back in the pool on January 24, hosting Elms College at 1:00 p.m.
