Swimming & Diving Has Strong Performance at Smith Relays

Claire Beckett action photo

Northampton, Mass. - The Mount Holyoke College swimming and diving team had a number of strong performances in a non-team scoring event at the Smith College Relays on Saturday.

Action opened up on the 1-meter diving board where sophomore diver Samantha Nemivant (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Prep) finished third with a total score of 228.35. First years Katie Kolozsvari (Danville, Ind./Indiana Academy) and Elise Malvicini (Kissimmee, Fla./International)School Manila) finished ninth and 10th, respectively. Nemivant went on to finish third overall off of the 3-meter board with a score of 242.00.

In the 200-yard medley relay, The Lyons A team finished just over a second behind Westfield with a time of 1:59.39, while the B team was three seconds outside of the top-three, touching the wall in 2:05.31 for a fourth place finish. The A team was junior Bri Groves (Reston, Va./South Lakes), senior Claire Beckett (Haslett, Mich./Haslett), first year Ashton Bliss (Honolulu, Hawaii/Hawaii Technology Academy), and classmate Naomi Brown (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington HS South).

Next up in the 800-yard freestyle relay, the Lyons A team of sophomore Allyn Dunlap (Sharon, Mass./Sharon), classmate Sarah Ratzlaff (Salt Lake City, Utah/Cottonwood), first year McKenzie Sumner (Leander, Texas, Chaparral Star Academy), and junior Delany Berry (Collinsville, Conn./Canton) finished third with a time of 9:28.11, while the B team finished in a time of 9:54.11 in fourth.

The Lyons got its first top-finish in the 3x1 yard butterfly relay, where Groves, Brown, and Bliss turned in a 3:13.94 time to edge out Smith for the top spot. In the 3x100-yard backstroke, first year Julia Swinehart (Holyoke, Mass./Holyoke), classmate Courtney Dunham (Pawling, N.Y./Canterbury School) and junior Delany Berry (Collinsville, Conn./Canton) finished third with a 3:32.65 mark.

Finishing first in the 3x100 yard breaststroke was Mount Holyoke, who finished just three second ahead of Westfield State. The team of senior Claire Beckett (Haslett, Mich./Haslett), first year Jacqueline Park (Cambridge, Mass./Cambridge Rindge and Latin School), and Groves touched the wall in a time of 3:52.07.

In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the squad of Bliss, Brown, senior Topaz Mukulu (Nairobi, Kenya/Brookhouse International), and Swinehart finished second with a time of 1:52.60, while Dunham, Ratzlaff, Park, and Berry finished third in the 400-yard Medley Relay with a mark of 4:57.61. Also finished third was Bliss, senior Amy Lim (San Francisco, Calif./Lowell), and Beckett, in the 300-yard medley relay, touching the wall in a time of 3:33.41.

The Lyons closed out the afternoon with four consecutive top-three finished, beginning with the 200-yard butterfly relay, where Groves, Dunham, Brown, and Mukulu swam a time of 1:59.76, edging Smith for the top spot. In the 200-yard backstroke, Park, Dunlap, Vejcik, and Swinehart finished second with a mark of 2:10.33, while Groves, Park, Sumner, and Beckett claimed first in the 200-yard breaststroke relay with a time of 2:25.26. Rounding out the day in the 400-yard freestyle relay was Brown, Bliss, Lim, and Berry, who touched the wall second with a time of 4:06.79.

Mount Holyoke is back in the water on next Saturday, hosting the University of New England ata 1:00pm. Smith heads to WPI to face the Engineers and Brandeis University, while Westfield State heads to the UMASS Dartmouth Invitational on Saturday