The William & Mary women's swimming team showed no signs of rust or fatigue after the long holiday and training trip, making short work of George Washington on the road Saturday, 164-106. The Tribe improved to 5-3 on the year with the win, its record-breaking 12th-straight season of 5+ victories, while the Colonials fell to 1-4 overall.
After the host team scored 26 points in the diving events to put W&M in an early hole, the Tribe proceeded to rip off six-straight wins and nine wins in the 14 swimming events total, before exhibitioning all swimmers in the final two races. The deficit was fully erased by the third race of the day, the 200 free, and W&M never trailed again. Kicking off the winning was the 200 medley relay team of
Sophie Rittenhouse (London, England),
Annie Valls (Miami, Fla.),
Jess Crowley (Acton, Mass.), and
Abby Mack (Wayne, Pa.) who combined to stop the clock in 1:47.82.
Next up was the 1,000 free, where freshman
Maria Oceguera (New Rochelle, N.Y.) touched first by a wide margin in 10:20.58, and senior
Jessie Ustjanauskas (West Hartford, Conn.) won her first of two races with a 1:54.00 in the 200 free to put the Tribe in front for good. Freshman
Katie Sell (Fredericksburg, Va.) picked up the win in the 100 back with a 58.40 performance, and junior
Allie Christy (Williamsburg, Va.) took a quick dip in the 100 breast to win in 1:06.59. The winning streak was capped off by sophomore
Rachel Anderson (Clifton, Va.), who touched the wall in the 200 fly in 2:07.49.
After GW freshman Emily Zhang impressively won both the 50 free and the 100 free, the Green and Gold got back to winning thanks to junior
Selina Fuller (Henrico, Va.) in the 200 back, who timed 2:07.51. Zhang won her third race of the day in the 200 breast, then
Jaimie Miller (Houston, Texas) won a rare 500 free with a lifetime-best performance of 5:08.02. Ustjanauskas finished out the wins in the 100 fly, timing a dual-meet record 55.57 that shattered the old record set by Mack last year by nearly a full quarter-second. The Tribe then exhibitioned the final two races in the meet (the 200 IM and the 200 free relay).
William & Mary returns home next weekend to take on Davidson at 12 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16. It is the final home meet of the season for the Tribe, the final home meet in the careers of six seniors who will be honored before the first event. That line-up includes Ustjanauskas, as well as
Noelle Klockner (Marlboro, N.J.),
Jenny Lomicka (Henrico, Va.),
Elena Marsilii (Falls Church, Va.),
Courtney Mizerak (Manassas, Va.), and
Hannah Vester (Cincinnati, Ohio).
