Courtesy: Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athletics
CLAREMONT, Calif. – The CMS women’s swimming and diving team capped off a perfect run through the SCIAC during the regular season by taking a pair of wins in a tri-meet at Axelrood Pool on Saturday, defeating La Verne 234-50 and Cal Lutheran 234-58 while winning every event in the meet.
The Athenas also celebrated their Senior Day prior to the meet with six members of the Class of 2019 honored on the women’s side: Madison Blumer (freestyle), Jacque Desmond (dive), Torrey Hart (distance), Riley Hoffman (freestyle), Malka Kausar (freestyle, backstroke) and Emma Stacy (freestyle, IM).
Desmond finished in first place in the one-meter and the three-meter, the fifth time in six SCIAC competitions that she has won the one-meter and the second time she has swept both, while Hart captured first place in the 500 with a time of 5:26.09, winning by over 13 seconds.
Stacy, meanwhile, finished second twice in her last meet at Axelrood Pool, earning the silver in the 100 free in 55.26 (.17 behind freshman Augusta Lewis) and again in the 200 IM in 2:17.76 (behind a 2:09.36 from Lewis). Hoffman was third in the 100 free behind Lewis and Stacy.
CMS set the tone right away after Desmond began with the diving sweep. The Athenas were 1-2-3 in the 200-yard medley relay, with the A team of Stephanie Lewis, Rachel Wander, Janet Tran and Natalia Orbach-Mandel winning in 1:50.61, just over a second ahead of the B team.
Sophomore Mia Syme then cruised to a win in the 1650 in 18:03.28, followed by freshman Leila El Masri and Hart in the second and third positions. Orback-Mandel followed with a win in the 200 free in 1:57.69, with Tran coming in second. Junior Jocelyn Crawford took the 100 back in 59.11 (followed by teammates Liv Baker and Anne Jang), and Augusta Lewis earned the first of her three wins, edging junior Claire Bacon-Brenes in the 100-yard breaststroke 1:07.24 to 1:07.55.
Freshman Natalie Larsen earned the win in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:14.97, and sophomore Allie Umemoto capped off the sweep of the first half of the meet with a 25.04 in the 50 free. After the intermission, Augusta Lewis edged Stacy in the 100 free, Larsen picked up her second win in the 200 back, Bacon-Brenes took the 200 breast and Tran edged out Umemoto in the 100 fly (59.56 to 59.72).
After Lewis’ third win in the IM, the Athenas capped off the meet by going 1-2 in the 200-yard freestyle relay, with Orbach-Mandel, Umemoto, Edwards and Hoffman finishing in 1:41.77, and Hoffman earning the honors of the final touch to the wall on her Senior Day.
CMS will be back in action next week at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational, before the SCIAC Championships take place from Feb. 21-24 in Commerce, California.
