Athena 800 Freestyle Relay Takes Home First CMS Swimming Title at 2019 SCIAC Championships

COMMERCE, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's 800-yard freestyle relay team took first place to close out an abridged opening day of the 2019 SCIAC Swimming Championships.

The team of sophomore Allie Umemoto, senior Riley Hoffman, senior Emma Stacy and freshman Leila El Masri earned a win by over two seconds, finishing in 7:37.54, good for an NCAA "B" cut. Stacy had the pivotal leg at the midway point, turning a race with Pomona-Pitzer that was within two-tenths of a second after two legs into a lead of over three seconds as she turned it over to El Masri for the final leg. 

The CMS "B" team also won its 800 free relay in convincing fashion, taking it by almost nine seconds over Pomona-Pitzer's "B" team. Sophomore Janet Tran, senior Torrey Hart, sophomore Mia Syme and sophomore Stephanie Lewis swam that race to finish first and give CMS 20 additional points (compared to 16 for Pomona-Pitzer's second-place finish). 

The opening race of the day was the 200-yard medley relay, which saw CMS come in second to Pomona-Pitzer with a time of 1:45.22, just under the NCAA's "B" cut. Junior Jocelyn Crawford, junior Claire Bacon-Brenes, sophomore Janet Tran and sophomore Natalia Orbach-Mandel earned All-SCIAC honors for their second-place finish behind Pomona-Pitzer. 

After three events have been factored into the scoring, today's two relays and the one-meter diving that was held last week, the championships are shaping up to be a thriller, with Pomona-Pitzer leading CMS just 156-154, heading into a full day of action tomorrow, beginning with 9 a.m. prelims.