MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Three Mammoths won conference titles on Friday as the Amherst College women's swimming and diving team had a record-setting evening on the second day of the NESCAC Championships at Middlebury College.
First-year
Maeve Kelley won the 500-yard freestyle, classmate
Lucy Smith won the 50-yard freestyle and junior
Sydney Bluestein repeated as one-meter diving champion.
Through 10 of 24 events, the Mammoths sit in fourth place in the team standings with 341 points. Williams leads with 731 points and defending champion Tufts ranks second with 627 points.
The championships continue on Saturday (Feb. 17) at Middlebury with preliminary heats beginning at 10 a.m. to qualify for the finals at 5:45 p.m.
MEET HIGHLIGHTS:
* The Mammoths opened the evening with a school record in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Smith teamed with senior
Grace Walker, first-year
Paige Arnold and senior
Lauren Eng to finish third and earn All-NESCAC honors with a time of 1:34.07, an NCAA B-cut time that bested the previous Amherst record of 1:34.14 that had stood since 2017.
* Kelley captured the NESCAC title in the 500 free with a pool-record time of 4:51.48, an NCAA B-cut time that earned an invitation to nationals last year.
* Arnold earned All-NESCAC honors in a second event with a third-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley with an NCAA B-cut time of 2:05.24, also under the threshold that qualified for nationals last season.
* Smith won the NESCAC championship in the 50-yard freestyle, touching in 23.31 seconds to win the conference title after setting a pool record in the morning prelims with a mark of 23.26, an NCAA B-cut time that made nationals last year.
* Bluestein repeated as the NESCAC champion on the one-meter diving board, the event in which she is the defending national champion. Bluestein scored 467.05 points to win her third NESCAC title after sweeping the diving events last year.
* The Mammoths also posted an NCAA B-cut time in the 400-yard medley relay, as Kelley, Walker, Arnold and Smith clocked in at 3:49.85 to finish fourth.
