SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. - The Mount Holyoke College swimming & diving team opened its 2018-19 season on Friday evening, hosting Division II Assumption at the MHC Natatorium. The visiting Greyhounds posted a 216-46 win over the Lyons.
The meet opened with the 200-yard medley relay, which saw the foursome of sophomore Jacqueline Park (Cambridge, Mass./Cambridge Rindge & Latin), senior Bri Groves (Reston, Va./South Lakes) and sophomores Ashton Bliss (Honolulu, Hawaii/Hawaii Technology Academy) and Tamara Mukulu (Nairobi, Kenya/Brookhouse International School) post third overall with a time of 1:58.32. Action then shifted to the gruelling 1000-yard freestyle as juniors Sarah Ratzlaff (Salt Lake City, Utah/Cottonwood) and Natalie Burkett (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) take fifth (12:36.00) and sixth (12:40.89), respectively.
In the 200-yard freestyle sophomore Naomi Brown (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington South) was ninth with a time of 2:12.57, while in the 100-yard backstroke, sophomore Caitlyn Richmond (Northampton, Mass./Northampton) was fifth overall with a time of 1:09.96. Groves went on to earn second in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing with a time of 1:11.96, which was less than a second off first (1:11.45). The 200-fly saw Bliss take fifth (2:26.05), while junior Jane Zhang (Fresh Meadows, N.Y./Townsend Harris) was sixth (3:09.60).
Mukulu then posted second overall in the 50-yard free, touching the wall with a time of 26.38. Next up was diving, which was exhibition for the Lyons. Junior captain Samantha Nemivant (Scottsdale, Ariz./Notre Dame Prep) paced the effort, notching a score of 240.85 points in her first action of the season off the 1-meter board. Sophomore Katie Kolozsvari (Danville, Ind./Indiana Academy of Science, Math and Humanities) was second with a mark of 185.60), followed by rookies Madeleine McEvoy (Barrington, Ill./Willows Academy) and Kathryn Murphy (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) in third (169.50) and fourth (159.95), respectively.
As action switched back to the pool, Mukulu earned fifth in the 100-yard free with a time of 58.04. Sophomore Riley Hicks (Bow, N.H./Bow) was seventh (1:03.04). Senior captain Delany Berry (Collinsville, Conn./Canton) went on to earn sixth in the 200-yard backstroke with a mark of 2:33.83, while in the 200-yard breast, Groves powered her way to second once more with a time of 2:40.52. In the 500-yard free, Bliss was the top finisher for MHC, earning fifth with a time of 5:43.68, while in the 100-yard butterfly, Brown was seventh with a time of 1:08.25.
Shifting back to the 3-meter event, Nemivant once again paced the exhibition effort with a score of 242.50 points. Kolozsvari was second with 216.10 points, followed by McEvoy with a mark of 179.10. In the final individual event of the night, Groves took sixth in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:25.98.
The Lyons then saw Bliss, Brown, Mukulu and Richmond combine for a time of 1:49.94 to finish fourth in the 200-yard free relay to cap the meet's events.
Mount Holyoke returns to action next Saturday when it travels to Smith College to compete in the Pioneers Relays. Action begins at 12pm.
