SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- A relay win and senior standout diver Maddy Sewell propelled the Mount Holyoke College swimming and diving team to a second-place finish out of five teams at the two-day Sisters Invitational, which concluded Sunday at the MHC Natatorium.
Mount Holyoke scored 950 points over the course of the meet, edging Smith College (920) for second place among five competing teams. Wellesley won the team scoring with 1,229 points; Simmons (450) and Western New England (99) placed fourth and fifth, respectively.
"Overall the team swam great with a few lifetime bests, and lots of season bests," said head coach Dave Allen. "[Saturday] was a tough day of competition: lots of events and not much time between them. I was proud our team rose to the occasion and really performed well under the circumstances."
Mount Holyoke got the meet off to a great start on Saturday morning, by winning the 200-yard freestyle relay by a margin of 0.78 seconds ahead of runner-up Wellesley. Junior Kamlyn Yosick (Portland, Ore.), first-year Maddy Ache (Silver Spring, Md.), sophomore Carolina Loayza (Fort Myers, Fla.), and junior Megan Schneider (Newton, Mass.) finished the race in 1:43.08, earning 40 team points for the Lyons. The Lyons' B squad placed fourth to score another 30 points -- senior Eliza Williams (Andover, Mass.), sophomore Molly Malloy (Atlanta, Ga.), sophomore Sophie Allen (Lopez Island, Wash.), and senior Adji Diouf (Alexandria, Va.) finished in 1:46.15.
Sewell (Scottsdale, Ariz.) narrowly defeated Wellesley first-year Jaya Magavi in Saturday's 1-meter diving competition, scoring 417.00 points to Magavi's 416.80 to take first place among four divers. On Sunday in 3-meter diving, Sewell scored 468.30 points to score another 20 team points, outscoring runner-up Katherine Welsh of Smith by 19.85 points, while Magavi placed third (361.55).
Other top-five event performances by the Lyons included:
- Loayza placed second out of 19 swimmers in the 50-yard butterfly in 27.49 seconds, second out of 19 in the 100 fly (59.95), and fifth in the 50 free (26.35).
- Yosick took third place in the 50-yard freestyle (25.85).
- Williams placed third out of nine swimmers in the 1,650-yard freestyle race, finishing the mile in 19:37.87. First-year Rebecca Pursner (Watkinsville, Ga.) placed fifth in 20:22.63, and first-year Sarah Delk (Waco, Texas) took sixth place in 21:37.09.
- Diouf placed fourth out of 17 swimmers in the 50-yard backstroke (30.40).
- Senior Evelyn Bushway (Schenectady, N.Y.) took fourth place in both the 400-yard individual medley (5:08.02) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:41.31).
- First-year Isabel Dunn (Harbor Springs, Mich.) took fourth place in both the 50 fly (28.50) and the 200 fly (2:21.53).
- Schneider placed fourth out of 33 swimmers in the 50-yard freestyle (26.06).
- Sophomore Maggie Freisthler (Washington, D.C.) placed fifth out of 25 swimmers in the 100-yard backstroke (1:06.31).
The Lyons next compete at the Vassar Sprint Invitational, Saturday Feb. 3 at 1pm.
