CMS Women's Swimming and Diving Goes 8-0 in SCIAC with Dual Sweep of Occidental, Whittier

WHITTIER, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's swimming and diving team completed a perfect regular season in SCIAC competition by defeating both Occidental and Whittier in a tri-meet hosted by Whittier on Saturday afternoon.

The Athenas, who came into the weekend ranked No. 11 in the nation by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America, improve to 8-2 overall this season and 8-0 in the SCIAC, with the two losses both coming to teams in transition to Division I (UC San Diego, California Baptist). 

Junior Christina Campbell earned two individual wins for CMS, taking the 200-yard freestyle in 1:55.73 and adding a win in the 200 back in 2:07.49. Sophomore Augusta Lewis added two wins as well, taking the 100 breast in 1:07.01 to edge first-year Suzanne Starzyk by just three-hundredths of a second and sophomore Rachel Wander by eight-hundredths of a second, and then adding a win in the 200 breast in 2:23.42. 

Sophomore Ava Sealander had a first-place finish in the 50 free in 24.48, while adding another first-place finish in the 100 fly in 58.12. First-year diver Makenna Parkinson also came away with a pair of wins, finishing with 226.15 points in the one-meter and 209.45 points in the three-meter to edge classmate Kimiko Adler in both. 

Junior Stephanie Lewis had a dramatic win in the 100 back, finishing in 1:00.27 to beat Lexi Mauldin of Whittier by just three-hundredths of a second. First-year Lexi Lee added a first-place finish in the 200 IM, touching the wall in 2:12.82 ahead of teammates Natalie Larsen and Emily Warner in second and third. 

First-year Ella Blake was the winner in the 500 free in 5:09.53, leading another 1-2-3 finish for the Athenas as junior Mia Syme and first-year Gracey Hiebert were second and third. 

CMS also dominated both relays, finishing 1-2 in the 200-yard medley relay to start the meet. The "A" relay team finished in 1:48.58, led by first-year Jameson Mitchum, Starzyk, Sealander and junior Natalia Orbach-Mandel. The Athenas were also 1-2 in the 400-yard freestyle relay to cap off the meet, led by Campbell, Blake, junior Janet Tran and Augusta Lewis.  

After concluding the regular season with an 8-0 league record, the Athenas will next host the CMS Invitational on Saturday in the final tuneup before the SCIAC Championships later this month, with diving taking place at 9 a.m. and swimming at 11 a.m. The Athenas will host the SCIAC Diving Championships on Feb. 15-16, before the swimming portion of SCIACs moves to Commerce, California on Feb. 20-23.