Lewis, Blake Win SCIAC Titles for CMS Women's Swim and Dive

LA MIRADA, Calif. - Augusta Lewis won the SCIAC title in the 200 IM for the third straight time, and Ella Blake won her second straight 500 free title to highlight the second day of the league championships for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's swimming and diving team.

The Athenas find themselves in a tight battle with Pomona-Pitzer at the midway point of the four-day tournament, with the Sagehens currently holding a narrow 39-point lead (496-457). The final two days will be a two-team battle as Chapman stands a distant third with 250.5 points. 

Lewis set a new SCIAC record, trimming .02 off her old record, by taking first place in the 200 IM in 2:02.39. The SCIAC Swimmer of the Year in 2019 and 2020, Lewis came into this week with five individual SCIAC titles in her first two league championships, and began her quest to add three more with her third 200 IM win. Jameson Mitchum (fifth), Allyson Yao (sixth) and Kelly Prawira (eighth) also qualified for the finals after morning prelims. 

Blake had to hold off her own teammate for her second straight 500 title, as Leila El Masri came back from two seconds down to take the lead with 50 yards to go, but Blake was able to edge her out at the wall 4:59.22 to 4:49.78, which now stand as the second and third best times in program history. Gracey Hiebert added a fourth-place finish, while Alex Towers also qualified for the finals and came in eighth. 

Ava Sealander earned a second-place finish in the 50 free, setting their new personal best in the process with a time of 23.31, just .02 off the school record. Natalia Orbach-mandel also qualified for the finals and finished eighth with a 24.09, while Katelyn Dang won the consolation heat with a 24.33.  CMS finished the day's events with a second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay, as Blake, Sealander, Dang and Orbach-Mandel finished in 1:35.50.  

Day three of the SCIAC Championships will take place tomorrow with morning prelims at 9 a.m., followed by 5 p.m. finals, in a busy day that will include individual races in the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle, as well as two relays.