Lord Jeffs and Ephs Share Swimming Rivalry

January 6 , 2007

The Amherst College Swimming and Diving teams split their meets at NESCAC and Little Three rival Williams College Saturday with the women prevailing by a score of 155-143 and the men falling 156-81.

The women came out on top in a tightly contested victory that was decided by the Jeffs’ win in the final event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay, by the team of sophomore Mary Marvel (Williamsburg, MA), juniors Lisa Pritchard (Saratoga, NY) and Julie Kim (Montville, NJ), and sophomore Meaghan Stern (Albuquerque, NM). Stern and Junior Brittany Sasser (Belmont, MA) led the way for the Jeffs throughout the meet; Stern won both the 100 and 200 freestyles while Sasser was victorious in the 100 and 200 backstrokes, the 200 IM and joined senior captains Piper Pettersen (Kirkland, WA) and Margaret Ramsay (Belmont, MA) and Marvel to win the 200 Medley relay to start off the meet. In total, the women took first place in 9 of the 16 events.

Juniors Connor Boyd (Northridge, CA) and Adam Bookman (Chevy Chase, MD) led the way for the men’s team with first and second place finishes respectively in the 1 and 3 meter diving events. Senior captain Ethan Treat (Newton, MD) also posted impressive performances with a win in the 200 IM and a second place finish in the 200 butterfly. Sophomore Christian Witzke (Jacksonville, FL) and Junior Andrew Maslan (Mission Hills, KS) teamed up with solid 2-3 in the 200 and 500 freestyle events.

The women’s team improved to 4-0 and clinched the Little Three Championship for the season. The loss was the first for the Eph’s women’s team at home in Muir-Samuelsen pool. The men, meanwhile, fell to 2-2 and finished the Little Three meets in second place. Both teams travel to Puerto Rico from January 7 to January 16 for a training trip and return to action January 20 at home against Hamilton College at 2:00 p.m.