Williams College Claims Seventh NESCAC Women’s Title

WILLIAMSTOWN, Massachusetts, February 18. THE depth of the Williams College women's swimming and diving team proved too much for the rest of the New England Small College Athletic Conference as the Ephs wrapped up their seventh consecutive NESCAC championship at the Muir-Samuelson Pool on the campus of Williams College Sunday.

The Ephs had one winner on the third and final day of the championship meet, senior Laura McCarthy, who took home the gold in the 100-yard freestyle. But Williams compiled 1,757 total points, defeating rival Amherst by 156.5 points. Middlebury placed third with 1,553.5 points, Connecticut College fourth with 1,044.5, and Tufts fifth with 888.5.

Amherst junior Brittany Sasser set a new meet, conference and pool record Sunday with a time of 1:58.79 in the 200 backstroke while winning that event. Tufts junior Kendall Swett won both the 1- and 3-meter diving over the weekend. Sunday, Sweet earned first off the 3-meter board with 482.25 points.

Williams led the meet by 49.5 points after the first day and 119.5 after the second despite winning just one event each day. That formula held true Sunday as well. The Ephs were the only team at the meet to have all 24 swimmers and divers on their roster collect at least one point.

"This is a great victory," Kuster said. "I think it was pretty obvious, given what we lost to graduation, that this was a 24-person victory this weekend. It's nice to know you can lose a few dual meets and still be the best team in the NESCAC. We swam much better the second half of the meet than we did the first ? especially on Saturday night. It's very satisfying."

Some of Sunday's other winners included Middlebury's Sara Cowie in the 1,650 free with a national "A" cut time of 17:17.37, Colby's Kelly Norsworthy in the 200 breaststroke with a national "B" cut time of 2:22.40 and Middlebury's Marika Ross with an "A" cut time of 2:01.25 in the 200 butterfly.

In addition, the Amherst 400 free relay of Mary Marvel, Erin Morrison, Sasser and Meaghan Stern took home a first in 3:30.10.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use