CMS Women's Swimming and Diving Drops Season Opener at UC San Diego

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's swimming and diving team began its winter season with a tough road trip to UC San Diego, a Division II program in transition to Division I, and came away with some strong performances as it gets ready for a busy month of November.

UC San Diego finished with a 201-83 win in the team standings on the afternoon, the first outside competition that the Athenas have had this season. 

The day started with the 200-yard medley relay, with the CMS team of sophomore Janet Tran, freshman Rachel Wander, freshman Ava Sealander and sophomore Natalia Orbach-Mandel clocking a 1:51.08 to come in third. 

The first individual event was the 1000 free, where freshman Leila El-Masri was fourth with a time of 11:08.37, followed by senior Torrey Hart and junior Stephanie Blankley. Orbach-Mandel was the top finisher for CMS in the 200 free with a 1:57.56, while sophomore Allie Umemoto also easily broke two minutes with a 1:57.64.

Orbach-Mandel also had the top time in the 100 free (54.18), coming in fourth, while freshmen Augusta Lewis (55.21) and Laurel Krovetz (55.25) also had strong showings. Lewis earned a 2:10.63 in the 200 IM to pace CMS as well. 

Tran led the Athenas in the 100-yard backstroke with a 1:02.70, coming in just ahead of sophomore Emily Howard (1:03.00) and freshman Natalie Larsen (1:03.15). Sophomore Anne Jang had a second-place finish in the 200 back with a time of 2:13.32, while sophomore Emily Howard was fourth in 2:16.75.

Lewis and Wander led the way in the 100 breast with times of 1:08.68 and 1:09.53, respectively, in their first collegiate races. Wander was fifth in the 200 breast with a 2:35.33, just ahead of Sealander (2:35.73). 

Senior Madison Blumer (26.48) and sophomore Elena Kovachevich were neck and neck in the 50 free (26.48 and 26.49), while Mia Syme swam a 5:14.28 in the 500 free to come in fifth. 

Umemoto came in just under a minute in the 100-yard butterfly (59.96) to finish fourth, but earned all nine first place points as the thre Tritons ahead of her weren't competing in the team scores. Sophomore Stephanie Lewis and Larsen were second and third in 1:00.86 and 1:01.22, respectively. 

Jacque Desmond finished a strong second in the one-meter diving (240.45 points), and also was the top Athena in the three-meter with 231.67 points, good for fifth. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Umemoto, Krovetz, Tran and Orbach-Mandel capped off the day with a 3:39.62, earning 11 points. 

CMS will be back in action next weekend when it travels to Chicago for a tri-meet with WashU, and then returns home for SCIAC meets with Chapman on Nov. 10, and Occidental and Caltech on Nov. 17.