At last weekend's SCIAC Swimming and Diving Championships, held at the Cerritos Olympic Swim Center, Lauren Williams '02 was named Athlete of the Year and Suzy Nicoletti '02 set SCIAC records in three events and was a member of four winning relays. Williams won three individual events (400 IM, 500 Free and 200 Fly) and set three SCIAC records (100 Back, 200 Free and 400 IM). She also was on three winning relay teams. Nicoletti won three individual events, the 100 and 200 yard breast stroke and the 200 yard IM. The women finished third overall with 587.5 points.
"Suzy Nicoletti and Lauren Williams put together the greatest two-woman combination of swims in the history of the SCIAC Conference," said Charlie Griffiths, head swimming coach. "They essentially re-wrote the record book."
CMS men finished second with 286 points. Pat Crowley '02 won the men's 400 IM. The men also won the 200 Free Relay.
"The Stags brought the smallest team in the SCIAC to the conference meet and basically willed a second place finish. Every Stag scored in the meet," Griffiths said. "The Stags and Athenas swam and dove with great energy and composure and we posted a huge number of personal best swims. The common theme I kept hearing from the team was, 'Wow, this is funI never though we could go that fast.'"
The Division III NCAA Championships will be held at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The women will swim March 14-16 and the men March 21-23. Suzy Nicoletti and Lauren Williams achieved automatic qualifying times and, according to Griffiths, will likely return to Claremont as All-Americans. Five Athena relays made provisional NCAA cuts, and the teams will learn on Thursday if they will be able to compete at Nationals. Ryan Carpenter, a sophomore at Harvey Mudd, also made a provisional NCAA cut in the 50-yard freestyle.