Despite suffering their first loss of the season to Williams, who are currently ranked fifth in the nation, the Amherst women’s swimming and diving team rebounded this past Saturday to top No. 23 Conn. College in the Mammoths closest meet of the season by a score of 167-127. The trip to New London bookended a three-meet schedule over interterm that started with a dominant 226-53 victory for Amherst over Union College.
The Mammoths finished 2017 in style, winning 14 of 15 events on their road trip to Schenectady, NY The team of Geralyn Lam ’18, Stephanie Moriarty ’18, Natalie Rumpelt ’20 and Ingrid Shu ’20 set the tone in the 200-yard freestyle relay, capturing first with a time of 1:38.44. Amherst also had teams finish second, third and fourth in the event, representing their first of 11 sweeps on the day. One such sweep was in the 1,650-yard freestyle, where Julia Ruggiero ’21 swam past the competition to take first with a time of 18:18.56. Her teammates were not far behind, with Jayne Vogelzang ’19 placing second at 18:40.12 and Marie Maxwell ’18 winding up in third at 18:48.98. Other highlights included Lindsay Ruderman ’21 diving her way to first-place triumphs in both the one-meter and three-meter events with scores of 293.92 and 285.67, respectively. Jacqueline Palermo ’19 and Nina Kiley ’21 finished in second and third place for both events.
Unfortunately, Amherst’s four match win streak came to an end the following week on their home turf against their archrival. The Ephs proved to be too much to handle, winning the first three events of the day, led by star first-year Laura Westphal. It wasn’t until the fourth event, the 100-yard backstroke, that Amherst was finally able to notch a win thanks to Bridgitte Kwong ’19, who finished with a time of 58.84. The Mammoths had an impressive showing in the 100-yard breaststroke, where Nina Fitzgerald ’21 was able to out-touch teammate Katie Smith ’19 by less than 0.4 of a second to claim second place.
The most spectacular performance of the day, however, went to Ruderman, who broke the one-meter pool record by more than 13 points to win the event. Moreover, Rumpelt, Moriarty, Livia Domenig ’19 and Lam placed second in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Despite these numerous second place finishes, Amherst wasn’t able to rack up enough first place finishes, resulting in its 181-117 defeat.
Wiping the sour taste out of their mouths, the Mammoths bounced back with a massive victory over Conn. College. Vogelzang posted a 10:42.18 in the 1000-yard freestyle to start Amherst off with the first win of the day, and Rumpelt kept the momentum going with a time of 1:54.59 to win the 200-yard freestyle. Shu then outraced the competition to take the top spot in the 50-yard freestyle with a blazing time of 24.56, and Zoe Pappas ’19 picked up some points thanks to her solid time of 25.06.
Ruderman continued her dominance in the one-meter diving, an event that the Mammoths swept thanks to Palermo and Kiley finishing second and third. Kwong and Heather Grotzinger ’20 claimed the top two spots in the 200-yard individual medley, and the team of Lam, Shu, Rumpelt and Moriarty made sure Amherst went out on top by winning the 200-yard freestyle in just 1:36.31.
The Mammoths will enjoy a week off from competition before embarking on their last weekend of regular season action when they will face Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge on Saturday, Feb. 3 and Springfield College at home the next day.
