Shaw Breaks Five-Minute Barrier in 500 Free to Highlight first Day of Pomona-Pitzer Dual

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Katy Shaw became the fourth Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's swimmer to break five minutes in the 500-yard freestyle, setting an Axelrood Pool record with a 4:59.67, to highlight the first day of the annual dual meet with Pomona-Pitzer on Friday.

Shaw narrowly missed the five-minute barrier last year at SCIACs with a 5:00.21 to win the league title, but was able to come in a third of a second below five minutes today to move into third place in CMS history. Mia Syme holds the program record with a 4:57.37, while Ella Blake is second with a 4:59.22. Leila El Masri also broke five minutes in 2022 with a 4:59.78. 

Also picking up wins on the first day for the Athenas were Alexis Romero in the three-meter dive (267 points), and Mackenzie Mayfield in the 200 IM (2:05.61). The Stags had a win in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:17.84 (Anderson Breazeale, Evan Deedy, Frank Applebaum, Dylan Kreuger), while Lucas Lang led a 1-2-3-4 Stag finish in the 500 free, edging Breazeale by a quarter-second (4:35.21 to 4:35.46) with Adam VanLuvanee third and Alex Johnson fourth. 

Pomona-Pitzer holds a narrow lead in both the men's (57-52) and women's (63-47) meets, but the bulk of the action will take place tomorrow. Both breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke events will take place tomorrow, along with the 400 IM, the 100, 200 and 1650 freestyle, the 400 free relay, the 200 medley relay, the men's one-meter dive and the women's three-meter dive. 

Full recaps to come tomorrow after day two of the annual CMS-PP dual.