SOUTH HADLEY, MASS. – Swimming and diving hosted its final home dual meet of the 2017-18 season against Simmons College for senior day on Saturday. The Lyons were paced by 12 top-three finishes for the day, but ultimately fell 212-88.
MHC had a solid start to the meet as the 200-yard medley relay comprised of junior Bri Groves (Reston, Va./South Lakes), senior Claire Beckett (Haslett, Mich./Haslett), classmate Topaz Mukulu (Nairobi, Kenya/Brookhouse International), and first year Tamara Mukulu (Nairobi, Kenya/Brookhouse International) finished third with a time of 1:59.89. Action then moved to the 1000-yard freestyle where sophomore Natalie Burkett (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) was fourth, touching the wall in 12:08.30, while junior Delany Berry (Collinsville, Conn./Canton) came in fifth with a mark of 12:36.74.
In the 200-yard freestyle, first year Naomi Brown (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South) was the Lyons top finisher with a time of 2:07.27, followed by classmate Riley Hicks (Bow, N.H./Bow) in fourth with a 2:09.59 time. The 200-yard backstroke saw first year Caitlyn Richmond (Northampton, Mass./Northampton) in fourth in a time of 1:10.60, just .53 seconds out of a top-three finish.
Groves and Beckett hit the pool again in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing second and fourth with times of 1:12.90 and 1:14.64, respectively. The 50-yard freestyle saw a strong performance for Tamara Mukulu, who finished second with a time of 26.62, only .45 seconds behind the first place finisher. She then hit the water again in the 11-yard freestyle to secure another second place finish with a time of 59.45. Beckett and Delaney then represented MHC in the 200-yard backstroke with third (2:23.74) and fifth place (2:34.87) finishes, respectively.
Groves had another strong performance in her third event of the day as she finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke, touching the wall in 2:38.19. The 500-yard freestyle saw Burkett finish third with a mark of 5:51.77, while Brown had another top-three finish in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:04.21. For the first time in the meet, the Lyons had two swimmers in the top-three as Beckett and Brown finished second and third in the 200-yard IM, respectively. Beckett had a time of 2:23.90, while Brown touched the wall in 2:27.45.
Mount Holyoke shined in the diving well as sophomore Samantha Nemivant (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Prep) finished on top off the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. In the 1m event, Nemovant finished with a score of 251.60, 49.45 points ahead of the second place finisher. First year Katie Kolozsvari (Danville, Ind./Indiana Academy) finished third with a score of 189.45. Off the 3m board, Nemivant once again finished first with a 252.20 mark. Kolozsvari was third with a score of 188.65.
Mount Holyoke returns to action on February 10th in a 1pm dual meet at Smith. Simmons is back in action February 15-18 at the New England Intercollegiate Championships.
