The 10th-ranked Amherst women’s swimming and diving team started its season with two major wins against NESCAC opponents two weekends in a row. Taking down both Colby and Wesleyan handily, the women have shown a depth of talent thus far this year that is sure to make for an exciting season.

The purple and white captured 12 first place finishes in the season opener against Colby on Saturday, Nov. 19 in Pratt Pool to record a 172-103 victory over the Mules.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Destin Groff ’17, Geralyn Lam ’18, Zoe Pappas ’19 and Ingrid Shu ’20 took first place honors with a time of 1:49.72, but the individual races are where the Amherst women shined.

Along with her hand in the relay, Shu took top honors in the 200-yard breaststroke and the 100-yard breaststroke with times of 2:27.77 and 1:07.70, respectively.

Livia Domenig ’19 touched the wall first in the 100-yard freestyle, and classmate Katie Smith sprinted to a 50-yard freestyle victory with a time of 25.01, while Lam and Natalie Rumpelt ’20 each won their 200-meter races in the butterfly and freestyle, respectively.

Rounding out the sprinters, the purple and white swept the podium in the 100-yard backstroke, with Stephanie Moriarty ’18 taking first place followed by Bridgette Kwong ’19 and Groff. Kwong and Moriarty switched places in the 200-yard backstroke, with Kwong taking the top spot and Moriarty following her in second place, trailing by six seconds.

In the long-distance races, junior Marie Maxwell swam to a first place finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:50.20.
Purple and white diver Jackie Palermo ’19 took the crown in the one and three-meter diving competitions to help secure an Amherst victory in the dual meet.

After a quick weekend turnaround, the purple and white were back in the pool on Monday, Nov. 21 at Wesleyan for another dual-meet against the Little Three rival. In their second win of the season, Amherst once again dominated the competition, racing to 10 first-place finishes.

Kwong, Smith and Rumpelt each took home two individual victories. Kwong touched first in the 400-yard individual medley as well as the 100-yard backstroke in 4:33.77 and 59.90, respectively.

Smith dominated the short sprint events, touching the wall first in the 50 and 100-yard breaststroke races, while Rumpelt was the queen of the freestyle, capturing first place in the 100 and 200-yard races. Moriarty and Lam also took home victories, finishing first in the 50-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly, respectively.

Shu continued to impress, taking first place with a time of 24.77 in the 50-yard freestyle and helping the 200-yard medley relay team of Groff, Pappas and Tracy Chen ’20 to victory.

The purple and white will travel to Middlebury, Vermont on Saturday, Dec. 3 to take on Middlebury at 1 p.m.