In the first of two dual meets of the weekend, Amherst swim and dive could not hold on against a strong MIT team. The men’s side moved to 4-2 on Saturday, falling to the Engineers, who improved to 6-1 with the win. Sophomore Connor Haley touched the wall first in the 1,000 freestyle to give the Jeffs their first win of the day. Senior Ben Grimes placed second in the 1,000 free with a time of 9:55:50. Haley followed up his first win with a tie for first in the 500 free, while teammates Grimes and John Janezich ’18 placed third and fourth respectively. Following the long-distance freestyle events, Sam Spurrell took first in the 200 butterfly and second in the 100 fly.

Greg Han ’17 earned another two wins for the purple and white 100 and 200 breaststrokes with times of 58:05 and 2:07:18. Elijah Spiro ’18 took third in the 100 free and first in the 200 breast. Nick Lafkey ’17 followed up with third in the same event. Han added to his two first-place finishes with a second in the 200 IM. Michael Rochford ’15 took third in both the 200 IM and in the 200 back.

Senior Tyler Hampton finished third in the 50 free, while classmate Connor Sholtis finished third in both the 100 and 200 free. The Jeffs took second and third in the 400 medley relay.

The ‘A’ team consisted of Matt Heise ’16, Jeff Anderson ’16, Spiro and Sholtis while the ‘B’ team consisted of Vic Sun ’16, Rochford, Han and Spurrell. In the 200 medley the ‘A’ team of Alex Dreisbach ’17, Heise, Spiro and Hampton took second. Finally the 400 free relay ‘A’ team of Hampton, Dreisbach, Sun, Sholtis took third in the final event.

Asher Litchig ’16 won both diving events, scoring 237.45 on the one-meter and 260.56 on the three-meter.
The women fell to 3-3 on Saturday, losing out to the Engineers 216-105. The team of Sabrina Lee ’15, Emily Hyde ’16, Geralyn Lam ’18 and Ashleigh Stoddart ’15 started the meet off with a second place finish in the 200 freestyle relay.
Charlotte Chudy ’16 took second in the 100 free and Sarah Conlkin ’16 took first in the 200 fly followed closely by Lam. Stoddart and Marie Maxwell ’18 took second and third respectively in the 200 free.

Hyde added to her accolades with a first place finish in the 100 breaststroke and 200 back. Hannah Hummel ’16 joined Hyde on the podium taking third in the 200 back. Lee finished second in 100 back while her 400 medley relay team including Hyde, Conklin and Stephanie Moriarty ’18 took second. The 200 medley ‘A’ team of Conklin, Moriarty, Stoddart and Victoria Chao ’18 took second while the ‘B’ team consisting of Hummel, Lam, Aline Kim ’15, and Amelia Deady ’18 took third.
In her next race, Maxwell took third in the 500 free while Conklin and Lam took first and second in the 100 fly. Stoddart took third in the 100 free. Lam closed out the meet, podiumming again in her next two races, finishing second in both the 200 IM and the 400 free relay alongside teammates Hyde, Conklin and Stoddart.

On Sunday the Jeffs traveled to Springfield for another dual meet, where both the men and women came out on top. The men improved to 5-2 on the season with the 170-124 victory.

“This weekend was tough,” captain Sholtis said. “Two meets and three sessions can be really taxing, with most of us swimming eight or nine times in two days.”

The Jeffs started the day with both first and second in the 200 medley relay. The ‘A’ team of Heise, Spiro, Hampton and Sholtis touched the wall first, while the ‘B’ team of Rochford, Lafky, Spurrell and Sun were close behind. Han finished first in the 200 IM with Alex Kang ’15 following behind him for his first podium of the weekend.
Amherst swept the 200 free with Sun, John Brody ‘17 and Grimes taking first, second and third respectively. Relay teammates Rochford and Spurrell took first and second in the 50 back, followed shortly by Spiro and Lafky taking first and third in the 50 breast. Heise and Janezich took first and third in the 100 fly. In yet another sweep, Sholtis, Hampton and Anderson took first, second and third respectively in the 50 free. In another short swim, Hampton and Spurrell took first and third in the 50 fly.

Sholtis kept the Jeffs’ momentum moving forward as he claimed the top spot in the 100 free, with Brody taking third behind him. Spurrell added more points to his day with a first in the 100 back, with Keegan Simmons ’17 following behind for the second place. In the final sweep of the day, Anderson, Sun and Spurrell took the top three spots in the 500 free.
Lichtig finished second both his 3-meter and 1-meter dives, scoring 257.56 and 221.48 respectively.

“This weekend was supposed to prepare us for championships, where we may swim up to 14 races in three days,” Sholtis said. “I think most of us did a really good job of pushing ourselves and each other mentally and physically and we had some really good swims. Now it’s championship time, and we’re excited to see what we can do.”

In the last meet before NESCACs the 162-132 win improved the women to 4-3 on the season. Sabrina Lee, a senior captain, noted that illness was a problem for the women.

“I would say that the team did really well this past weekend considering that about four out of our 17 person team had strep or bronchitis,” she said.

The women started the meet by taking the first and third spots in the 200 medley relay, with the ‘A’ team of Stephanie Moriarty, Vicotira Chao, Sarah Conklin and Ashleigh Stoddart touching the wall in 1:52:40 and the ‘B’ squad of Kim, Hummel, Deady and Daniella Cruz ’18 finishing in 1:58:06.

Hyde had her first finish of the day taking the top spot in the 200 IM, with Lam touching the wall just .18 seconds behind her. Cudy and Maxwell notched points for the Jeffs with second and third in the 200 free. The women’s only sweep of the day was delivered by Lee, Moriarty and Kim in the 50 back.

The second and third spots in the 50 breast were taken by Chao and Hannah Hummel, with Conklin and Lam finishing first and second in the 100 fly. Stoddart and Amelia Deady took first and third in the 50 free and then went on to earn second and third in the 100 free. Moriarty added another win to her day, taking the top spot in the 100 back, with Lee touching the wall just behind her to earned second.

Hyde and Hummel took first and third in the next race, finishing the 100 breast in 1:07:57 and 1:10:01 respectively. Maxwell and Chudy finished raced the 500 free for the Jeffs, finishing first and second respectively in the longest event. Conklin and Lam added another set of gold and silver to the Jeffs’ point tally, taking the top two spots in the 50 fly.

In the last individual race of the afternoon, Emily Hyde and Lee took first and third in the 100 IM. In the last race of the day, Amherst took first and third in the 200 free relay. The ‘A’ team consisting of Stoddart, Conklin, Geralyn Lam, and Lee touched the wall in 1:42:33, while the ‘C’ team of Moriarty, Maxwell, Destin Groff ’17 and Cruz finished in 1:45:38.
“I think some of our relays are really starting to come together,” Lee said. “With about 2 weeks before NESCACs, I can’t wait to have the whole team together, healthy and ready to race!”

The women travel to Wesleyan for NESCAC championships Feb 13-15 while the men wait until Feb 20-22 to travel to Middlebury for their own championship.