Northampton, Mass. - The Mount Holyoke College swimming team fought hard, but fell 186-114 at Smith College on Saturday. The Lyons finished the meet with four, first-place finishes and 13 finishes in the top-three.

The meet kicked off on the right foot with a first place finish from senior Claire Beckett (Haslett, Mich./Haslett), first year Gwen Evans (Deerfield, N.Y./Whitesboro), and classmates Naomi Brown (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington HS South) and Jacqueline Park (Cambridge, Mass./Cambridge Rindge and Latin) in the 400-yard medley relay (4:25.54). Action moved to the 1000-yard freestyle, where first year Ashton Bliss (Honolulu, awaii/Hawaii Technology Academy) was the Lyons top finisher in second with a time of 11:45.02.

Mount Holyoke had a strong performance in the 200-yard freestyle with a one-two finish as Park and Beckett had times of 2:08.09 and 2:09.11, respectively. In the 100-yard backstroke, first year Caitlyn Richmond (Northampton, Mass./Northampton) finished, touching the wall in 1:11.20. Momentum continued as Beckett and Gwen each finished in the top-three of the 100-yard breaststroke, posting times of 1:16.33 and 1:19.96, good for second and third.

Heading to the 100-yard freestyle, the Lyons stole the show as first year Tamara Mukulu (Nairobi, Kenya/Brookhouse International School) and Park finished first and second with time of 57.85 and 58.80, respectively. Sophomore Natalie Burkett (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) placed third in the 200-yard breaststroke with a mark of 2:50.03, followed by a second place performance from Bliss in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:46.40.

In the diving well, sophomore Samantha Nemivant (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Prep) placed third off the 1-meter board with a final score of 257.35, before locking down a second place finish off the 3-meter with a tally of 261.10 points.

Both Brown and Mukulu each earned another top-three finish as Brown was first with a 1:05.39 time, and Mukulu was second with a 1:07.47 time in the 100-yard butterfly. Beckett then had a strong performance in the 200-yard IM, boasting a time of 2:28.24, good for second place. In the final event of the day, the 200-yard freestyle relay team comprised of senior Amy Lim (San Francisco, Calif./Lowell), first year Riley Hicks (Bow, N.H./Bow), Park, and Tamara Mukulu, placed second with a time of 1:47.39.

Both teams are back in action next Thursday at the NEWMAC Championships, hosted by MIT in Cambridge, MA. Action kicks off at 6:00pm and runs until Sunday evening.