ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Getting many of its points from top performances in diving, relay races and the 100-yard butterfly, the Mount Holyoke College swimming and diving team took fifth place among nine teams competing at the two-day Don Richards Invitational, which concluded Saturday at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Mount Holyoke scored 279 points over two days, just behind Clarkson (295) and 40 points ahead of William Smith College (255) for fifth place among nine teams.
Senior Maddy Sewell (Scottsdale, Ariz.) took second place out of 13 divers on the 1-meter board, scoring 439.85 points to edge RIT's Maddi Williams (438.45). Sidney Simmons of Roberts Wesleyan University scored 456.70 points, becoming the first competitor to outscore Sewell in a regular-season meet in the Lyon standout's two years of competition thus far.
Sewell also placed second in 3-meter diving with 450.70 points, 45.50 points ahead of third-place Simmons and 20.15 behind first-place Maddi Williams of RIT.
The Lyons began the meet Friday with a fourth-place showing in the 200-yard freestyle relay, with a time of 1:43.70 swum by sophomore Carolina Loayza (Fort Myers, Fla.), first-year Maddy Ache (Silver Spring, Md.), junior Kamlyn Yosick (Portland, Ore.) and junior Megan Schneider (Newton, Mass.). The same foursome later placed fourth in the 200-yard medley relay in 1:57.36, and fifth in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:52.32.
More of Mount Holyoke's point-scoring highlights at the meet included:
- Loayza took fourth place among 23 athletes in the 100-yard butterfly, with a time of 1:00.60.
- Schneider placed 12th out of 58 swimmers in the 50-yard freestyle (26.00), and 12th among 27 swimmers in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:15.00).
- Competing in some of the most grueling events, senior Eliza Williams (Andover, Mass.) took eighth place among 16 swimmers in the 400-yard individual medley (5:16.90); 13th out of 20 in the 1,650-yard freestyle in a time of 19:55.37; and 15th out of 21 in the 200-yard butterfly (2:34.51).
- First-years Madeline Hood (The Colony, Texas) and Rebecca Pursner (Watkinsville, Ga.) were 14th (5:39.16) and 15th (5:41.76), respectively.
- Junior Lauren Madsen (Ghent, N.Y.) was 16th out of 27 in the 100 breast (1:17.55).
- Finishing fourth in the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:57.36 were senior captain Adji Diouf (Arlington, Va.), Schneider, Loayza, and Yosick.
- Finishing sixth in the 400-yard medley relay with a time of 4:31.03 were Diouf, Madsen, Loayza, and Williams.
Following their annual winter training trip to Florida over the holiday break, the Lyons' next meet will be at home against Trinity and Vassar on Jan. 11 at 2pm.
