The Amherst women’s swim and dive team had an eventful weekend, taking on the No. 9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Saturday, Jan. 28 in Cambridge, and then traveling to Springfield the following day to face the Springfield College Pride.
In their Saturday meet against the Engineers, the eighth-ranked purple and white topped the competition 171.5-128.5.
The 200-yard medley relay team comprised of Stephanie Moriarty ’18, Katie Smith ’19, Geralyn Lam ’18 and Ingrid Shu ’20 collected the first points of the meet with a winning time of 1:47.88.
Amherst also swept the 200-yard freestyle with Natalie Rumpelt ’20 (1:54.80) in first, followed by Livia Domenig ’19 (1:56.75) and Dorit Song ’19 (1:57.03).
Following her victory in the 200-yard medley relay, Moriarty went on to swim to a first place finish in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.61.
Fellow members of the winning relay team Lam and Shu gathered two more individual victories each to help propel the purple and white to victory.
Lam won the 200-yard and 100-yard butterfly with times of 2:08.22 and 57.68. Shu glided to a first place finish in the 100-yard freestyle (53.33) and tied for first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.52.
Destin Groff ’17, Rumpelt, Moriarty and Shu made up the 200-yard freestyle relay team that secured their victory over MIT with a winning time of 1:37.38.
The Amherst women used the momentum from their impressive win over the competitive Engineers to push for a 2-0 weekend. With a final score of 157-131, the purple and white were able to down Springfield.
Moriarty, Smith, Lam and Rumpelt led Amherst to another first place finish in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:50.22.
Sophomores Bridgitte Kwong and Jayne Vogelzang finished first and second in the 400-yard individual medley with times of 4:36.87 and 4:48.38, respectively.
The purple and white swept the 200-yard freestyle once again with Shu claiming first place in a time of 2:00.09, and Pappas and Sarah Wishloff ’19 taking second and third with times of 2:00.30 and 2:00.96.
Lam and Rumpelt collected first and second place finishes in the 50-yard freestyle with respective times of 24.65 and 25.23.
Amherst collected three more individual victories thanks to winning efforts by Domenig in the 100-yard freestyle (54.88), Lam in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.60) and Jackie Palermo ’19 in the one-meter diving event with a score of 282.53.
Due to their impressive recent performances, Amherst has claimed the NESCAC performer of the week for two consecutive weeks. Rumpelt garnered performer of the week honors in the Jan. 23 release, while Shu claimed the same accolade for the Jan. 30 release.
The team is gearing up for a two-week break as they prepare for the NESCAC championship meet hosted at Bowdoin, which will take place Friday-Sunday, Feb. 10-12. With high hopes for the NESCAC championships, the purple and white will continue to look forward towards the NCAA Division III championship meet. The national meet will take place March 15-18 in Conroe, Texas, where the Amherst women hope to continue their dominant season.
