SWIMMING
Men
Facing a historic performance from a stellar MIT squad, the Jeffs ultimately fell short, 178-116, despite several strong individual showings. The Engineers’ start was nearly impossible to overcome: MIT’s team of Bo Mattix, Michael Liao, Wyatt Ubellacker and Craig Cheney broke the pool record with a time of 1:33.42 in the 200 medley relay.
The Jeffs’ Ben Grimes ’15 and Conor McAuliffe ’14 did all they could to answer, taking home the top two spots in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Unfazed, the Engineers came right back by capturing first and second places in the 200-yard freestyle.
In the 100-yard backstroke, MIT’s Mattix broke another pool record with a time of 58.33, while Ubellacker set an astonishing three marks of his own: a 20.48 in the 50-meter freestyle, a 45.44 in the 100-meter free and a 49.06 in the 100 fly. In all, seven pool records fell at the hands of the Engineers. Despite the loss, Jeff Anderson ’16 and Tyler Bulakul ’14 both met the NCAA “B” cut standard in the 200-meter fly.
Additionally, Amherst’s divers broke some records of their own, with Asher Lichtig ’16 and Colin White ’14 each topping the pool mark in the three-meter dive. After what was, by all accounts, a solid effort, the Jeffs will look to get back into the win column on Feb. 1-2 at Middlebury.
Women
While the Amherst men had their hands full with MIT, the women fared much better, taking home a 169-129 victory behind an outstanding effort from Emily Hyde ’16.
The first-year won three events on the day: the 100-yard breaststroke (1:07.09), the 200-yard breast (2:25.40) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:10.18).
Several other Lady Jeffs made valuable contributions to the win, including Nicole Heise ’13 and Sarah Conklin ’16, who took home the top two spots in the 200-yard fly and both made the NCAA “B” cut.
Stephanie Ternullo ’15 and Lulu Belak ’14 finished one-two in the 200-meter free, and Lizzy Linsmayer ’14 also excelled on the diving board, winning the one- and three-meter dives and making the “B” cut in both. With the victory, the Lady Jeffs improve to 6-1, their only loss coming to Williams on Jan. 5. They will look to boost their record further when they take on Middlebury on Feb. 1-2.
TRACK AND FIELD
The indoor track teams traveled to Springfield College over the final week of interterm to compete in the first of two invitationals hosted by the Spirit. Led by impressive outings in the distance and middle distance races, the men’s and women’s indoor teams continued to impress and pick up gold medals.
Men
In an excellent overall performance, the Jeffs took home the No. 2 spot out of 11 teams at the Springfield College Invitational on Jan. 26.
The most dominant performance of the day came in the mile run, where Pat Grimes ’13, Charlie Reighard ’14 and Greg Turissini ’15 finished just over four-tenths of a second apart for the top three spots.
In the 800-meter run, the Jeffs also set the pace, with Matt Melton ’14 taking the No. 1 spot and sophomores Romey Sklar and Nick Codola capturing third and fourth, respectively. Alvaro Moralesm’14 also led the way in the 5,000-meter event with a time of 15:18.11.
St. Lawrence finished at the top of the field by a solid margin with a score of 125, but the Jeffs were the next-best team with a mark of 76, four points ahead of third-place finisher, R.P.I. Local rivals Keene State and Trinity finished 10th and 11th, respectively.
The Jeffs return to action on Saturday (Feb. 2) for Part II of the Springfield Invitational.
Women
The women were not far behind their male counterparts at the Springfield College Invitational, taking home a solid third place out of a field of 12.
In a familiar sight, Keri Lambert ’13 dominated the mile run with a time of 5:05.12, nearly nine seconds ahead of her closest competitor.
Lauren Almeida ’13 was the other runner to earn a victory on the day, leading the way with a 3:03.65 in the 1000-meter run.
Notably, the Lady Jeffs’ second-place effort in the 4x200-meter relay (1:48.29) was good for a school record. Again, St. Lawrence set the pace in the event with 113 points, while Springfield came in second with 82. Along with the men, the Lady Jeffs will return to Springfield College next Saturday (Feb. 2) for Part II of the Springfield Invitational.
