Before their victory over Springfield College on Sunday, both the Amherst men and women’s teams fell to MIT on Saturday. By the end of the weekend, the Amherst men would be left with a 5-2 record, while the women would hang on to a 4-3 – going into NESCAC Championships shortly. This would place the MIT men with a 7-1 record (losing only to Amherst’s rival, Williams) and the women with a 8-1 record (also losing to Williams).
Final Scores:
MIT Women: 216 | Amherst Women: 105
MIT Men: 197.5 | Amherst Men: 127.5
The MIT women started the meet off with a killer 200 free relay – beating Amherst by nearly 1.5 seconds. MIT senior Emmie Ryan then took first in the 1000 free with a time of 10:45.31. in the 2-free, sophomore Veronika Jedryka swam well under 2:00 to take first with a final time of 1:56.58. Veronika then took first in the 100 and 200 backstrokes with times of :59.55 and 2:07.22, respectively. Next, in the 50 free, MIT junior Lena Yang took first with a :24.44 – while the A 400 medley relay took first – with the help of Emmie’s killer, :52.59 second freestyle anchor leg – giving them the final time of 3:56.66. In the 2-medley relay, MIT also took first with a time of 1:49.74. Freshman Mary Thielking would then win the 500 free at a time of 5:11.17 while her fellow freshman Amanda Wu would win the 100 at a time of :53.04. It was a good day for the MIT freshman – as Joanna Han next took the 200 IM at a 2:09.96. MIT finished up the meet with a victory in the 400 free relay – a quick time of 3:35.53.
For the Lady Jeffs, junior Sarah Conklin won event 5 – the 200 fly – with a killer 2:08.17. Conklin then came back on the 100 fly, taking first with a :57.67. Teammate and fellow junior Emily Hyde took first in the 100 and 200 breasts, swimming times of 1:06.13 and 2:22.77, respectively.
While the MIT men had more of a fight, their victory in the first event, the 200 free relay would be a reflection of the meet to come. In the 2-free, sophomore Kale Rogers finished first by over three seconds – swimming a time of 1:43.12. Junior Bo Mattix took the 100 back with a quick :51.40, and then was later touched out by freshman teammate Dougie Kogut in the 2-back, who swam a time of 1:54.44. In the 50 free, senior Austin Fathman took first with a :21.13, then later took first in the 100 free as well, swimming a time of :45.92. Austin then swam the anchor leg of the 400 medley relay – also taking first for MIT – in addition to their victory in the 200 medley relay. Alexander Lednev, a junior, tied with Amherst sophomore Connor Haley to win the 500 free – both of them swimming a time of 4:44.69. Lednev went on to take first in the 200 IM, swimming a 1:55.08. In the 100 fly, junior Sean Corcoran swam a quick :51.06 to take first. The MIT men finished with another first place in the 400 free relay – giving them a total of 4/4 first place relay finishes.
For the Amherst men, Connor Haley made good use of the first individual event – winning the 1000 yard freestyle with a time of 9:48.90. Freshman Sam Spurrell next won the 200 fly with a time of 1:54.07. Sophomore Greg Han took the 100 breast – well under a minute with a :58.05. Greg later took first in the 2-breast, swimming a 2:07.18.
In diving, MIT junior Grace Connors took the 1 and 3 meter events, with scores of 192.38 and 182.42, respectively. For the men, Asher Lichtig, of Amherst, also took both events – doing so with scores of 237.45 and 260.56 for the 1 and 3 meters, respectively.
Follow MIT as they head to NEWMAC Championships at WPI, while the Amherst men go up to Middlebury and the women down to Wesleyan to compete for the NESCAC Championship title.