Swimming & Diving Hosts MHC Invitational

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (Dec. 1, 2012) – The Mount Holyoke College swimming and diving team hosted longtime rivals Smith College and Wellesley College today at its home invitational. Wellesley dominated the non-scoring meet, taking 19 of the 22 events. Mount Holyoke's Cathleen Pruden swam to victory for the Lyons in the other three events.

Pruden (Raleigh, N.C./Ravencroft School) set the tone for Mount Holyoke with three first-place finishes. In addition to capturing the 500-yard freestyle (5:16.70), she also won the 200-yard breaststroke (2:30.43) and the 400-yard individual medley (4:40.26). Pruden also finished third in the 1650-yard freestyle (18:53.69) and helped the 400-yard freestyle (3:58.04) and the 200-yard freestyle (1:42.57) relay teams to second overall.

Wellesley saw a dominant effort across the board, paced by the efforts of first year Dorothy Ren and junior Mariam Amirkhanashvili (Salt Lake City, Utah/Skyline), both of whom recorded seven victories apiece, including three individual. Ren swam to victory in the 50-yard breaststroke (32.16), the 50-yard butterfly (27.76) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:12.33), while Amirkhanashvili was first to touch on the 50-yard freestyle (26.13), the 100-yard butterfly (1:02.85) and the 100-yard freestyle (56.26).

They also combined to help the 200-yard freestyle (1:42.41), the 400-yard medley (4:11.12), the 200-yard medley (1:56.67) and the 400-yard freestyle (3:51.30) relays to victories.

In the diving events, Wellesley sophomore Gabby Cooper-Vespa (Orange, Conn./Hopkins School) was victorious off both boards, winning the 1-meter by a score of 390.45 points and the 3-meter with a mark of 375.90 points.

Sophomore Tiffany Chen (Wayland, Mass./Natick) also had an outstanding day for the Blue, winning the 200-yard individual medley (2:20.77), the 200-yard backstroke (2:17.39), the 50-yard backstroke (30.21) and the 100-yard backstroke (1:04.51).

Chen was also one of 23 swimmers over the course of the day to compete in the Iron Woman Challenge, which sees each participant compete in 19 swimming events (1650-free is not required). Wellesley's Charlotte Harris (Cincinnati, Ohio), a first year, was the top overall finisher with a combined time of 29:20.15. Chen was close behind in second with a time of 29:55.96, while fellow Blue teammate Annie Hamilton (Stone Mountain, Ga./St. Pius X) rounded out the top three with a time of 29:59.19.

Additionally, Hamilton and Mount Holyoke's Lindsey Kanno (Cranston, R.I./Cranston East), who finished fifth overall with a combined time of 30:28.78, were the only two swimmers amongst the 23 to compete in all 20 swimming events. All of today's "Iron Women" are listed below.

Mount Holyoke is back in the pool next Saturday when it travels to the University of St. Joseph for a 1pm meet. Wellesley is slated to host Babson College and the Coast Guard Academy on January 9 at 4pm, while Smith will welcome Wellesley the following day in Northhampton at 1pm.

2012 Mount Holyoke Invitational "Iron Women"

Charlotte Harris (Wellesley) – Top overall finisher
Tiffany Chen (Wellesley) – Second overall finisher
Annie Hamilton (Wellesley) – Third overall finisher
Maya Lazarovich (Mount Holyoke) – Fourth overall finisher
Lindsey Kanno (Mount Holyoke) – Fifth overall finisher

Bethany Aban (Mount Holyoke)
Sarah Crocker (Mount Holyoke)
Joselyn Auxer (Mount Holyoke)
Leah Townsend (Mount Holyoke)
Alyssa Pascuzzo (Smith)
Paige Christie (Smith)
Kelsey Swensen (Smith)
Emily Lane (Smith)
Christine Hart (Smith)
Hannah Francis (Smith)
Claire Dudek (Smith)
Christina Goethel (Smith)
Emily Sotomayor (Wellesley)
Erin Yang (Wellesley)
Theresa Mitchell (Wellesley)
Karina Chung (Wellesley)
Suman Kumar (Wellesley)
Shaheen Rangwalla (Wellesley)