The William & Mary women's swimming team began the 2021 season in impressive fashion on Saturday, sweeping George Mason and Richmond in a double-dual meet in Fairfax.  The Tribe beat the host Patriots 158-64, and took down the short-handed Spiders 166-40, to improve to 2-0 at the start of the year.

Showing very few signs of the long off-season, W&M won 19 of the 26 events contested on the day, and did so in show-stopping fashion.  The Tribe broke six dual-meet records and also had three NCAA provisional-qualifying marks.  Accounting for a pair of the records and all three B-cuts was junior Missy Cundiff (Leesburg, Va.), who took three cracks at qualifying for the NCAA Championships in the 50 free.  That wasn't the plan coming into the meet, but Cundiff opened her afternoon by winning the 50 free in 22.56 seconds.  That tied her lifetime-best as the 11th-fastest race in school history, and obliterated the dual-meet record of 23.07 that Cundiff herself set last January against George Washington.  With that race under her belt, the decision was made to try to see how fast she could go on opening day and chase a national invite.  In the 200 free, Cundiff went as hard as she could in the first 50, coming into the wall at 22.68 seconds, another B-cut, before continuing on to finish fourth overall in the event against GMU and second against Richmond.  At the end of the meet, Cundiff time-trialed the 50 free again, and improved her lifetime-best to 22.54 seconds, the 50th-fastest time in the nation so far this season.  That was tied for the eighth-fastest race in W&M history, and improve's Cundiff's standing as the fourth-fastest swimmer ever for the Tribe.

Also picking up a pair of dual-meet records was senior Megan Bull (Hillsborough, N.J.).  Bull swept the 400 IM against both opponents in 4:26.25, breaking the record previously set by Molly Emery '12 against East Carolina in 2010 (4:27.44).  Later in the afternoon, Bull won the 200 breast against GMU, stopping the clock in 2:19.21 to take down one of the oldest dual-meet records on the books, a 2:19.39 set by Hall-of-Famer Ruth Anne Miller '03 all the way back in 2002.  Junior Anna Kenna (Chantilly, Va.) swept both the 100 and 200 backstrokes to lead W&M in scoring with four wins and 44 points, and in the former event, swam 55.96 seconds to break the dual-meet record of 56.56 that she herself set against Duke back in 2019.  The final dual meet record came in the 100 breast, where sophomore Annie Tuttle (Alexandria, Va.) swam 1:03.31 to defeat Richmond, and best the record of 1:04.67 that Jess Crowley '18 set as a senior against East Carolina.  Tuttle's swim was also the 10th-fastest single race in school history.

W&M also got four wins on the day from sophomore Katie Stevenson (Wilton, Conn.), who swept the 200 free in 1:51.84 and came back to take the 100 free as well, timing 51.19 seconds.  Her classmate Maura Graff (Henrico, Va.)  won the 200 IM against George Mason in 2:08.22, and then came back to sweep the 100 fly with a time of 56.31 seconds.  Sophomore Elizabeth Intihar (Columbus, Ohio) won the 1,650 free against GMU in 17:26.06, and junior Rebecca Rogers (Richmond, Va.) capped off the meet with a win against the Spiders in the 200 fly, stopping the clock in 2:06.56.

William & Mary has next weekend off, and will return to action on Saturday, March 6, with a virtual dual against Davidson.