The Amherst swim and dive teams split meets on Saturday at the Middlebury natatorium. The men won their matchup to pull their record up to 4-0 while the women could not quite hold on and suffered their first loss of the year, dropping to 3-1 on the season.

The men’s side set the Panthers back to 0-3 on the season, beating them handily with a meet score of 203-77. The Jeffs took the top two spots in both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke, with Matt Heise ’16 earning both victories and Michael Rochford ’15 following close behind with two second-place finishes. Adding to Heise’s two first-place races, four other Jeff’s had a multi-win meet. Connor Haley ’17 won the 500-yard and 1000-yard freestyle events and senior Connor Sholtis was first to touch the wall in both the 100- and 200-yard freestyle races. Greg Han ’17 took home first in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200 IM. Amherst’s lone diver, Asher Lichtig ’16 won both the three-meter and one-meter diving events.

“It was great to have an opportunity to swim at the pool in which our conference championships will be held. We had a really hard week of work and a really long bus ride, but we still got up and swam fast,” Sholtis said.

Jeff Anderson ’16 and Sam Spurrell ’18 each claimed a first- and second-place finish, with Anderson taking the top spot in the 200-butterfly and Spurrell claiming first in the 100 fly. Anderson finished second in the 200 IM while Spurrell touched the wall after Anderson to claim second in the 200 fly.

Sholtis and Heise earned another victory to their names, swimming alongside Elijah Spiro ’18 and Tyler Hampton ’15 to win the 200 medley relay. Amherst again took the top two spots in an event, with Rochford, Spurrell, Han, and Alex Dreisbach ’17 touching the wall next.

Sholtis rounded out his day with a fourth win in the 400-yard freestyle relay with teammates Hampton, Dreisbach and Vic Sun ’16.

“The meet was a great way to generate some momentum going into reading period and finals,” Sholtis said. “Hopefully that will help us to continue working hard in the pool through Christmas despite the psychological drain of exams and papers.”

The women’s side couldn’t hold on and was barely edged by the Panthers, who improved to 2-1 on the season with a 158-130 victory over the Jeffs.

Despite the loss, four Jeffs had at least two individual wins on Saturday. Emily Hyde ’16 had three individual wins on the afternoon, taking the top spot in 200-yard freestyle, the 200-yard breaststroke, and the 200 IM. Sarah Conklin ’16 took first in both the 100 and 200 fly, while first-years Marie Maxwell and Stephanie Moriarty continued to show their dominance with a pair of wins each. Maxwell touched the wall first in 500- and 1000-yard freestyle events while Moriarty earned first in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke races.

Geralyn Lam ’18 touched the wall second in both the 200 back and 200 IM to give Amherst both the first- and second-place spots in those two events. Amherst’s relay teams earned second place in both the 200 medley, swam by Moriarty, Hyde, Conklin, and Sabrina Lee ’15, and the 400 free, swam by Moriarty, Maxwell, Conklin, and Lee.

“Of course the loss is always a little disappointing, but when you look at each of the times, we had a pretty awesome meet,” Lee said. “Considering their team is over twice the size of ours and we have no divers, I think it’s impressive we only lost by two points, disregarding the points they scored from diving. After such a hard week of training, it was really nice to see the team put up some really great swims and is indicative of promising future performances at NESCACs when we finally get some rest.”

Both the men and women have a lengthy break from meets before traveling to Williams on Saturday, Jan 10 to start up interterm competition. The Williams men’s side has a record 2-0-1 while the women are 2-0. Amherst will be the Ephs’ first conference opponent of the season.