Ephs finish 5th at NCAAs

OXFORD, OH. -- Five top-ten finishes Saturday allowed the Williams College women's swimming and diving team to finish 5th overall at the 2008 NCAA Div. III Swimming & Diving Championships.

Junior Amanda Nicholson had the Ephs highest finish for the second day in a row. One day after winning a national title in the 400 IM, Nicholson swam to a fourth-place finish in the 200 back with a time of 2:01.90. 

Williams finished with 269.5 points, just 10.5 points behind fourth-place finisher Emory University. Keynon College won its 22nd national title, with Amherst placing second and Denison College third.

"I think we had a very good meet," said Ephs head coach Steve Kuster. "We had eight first-time swimmers at nationals, and 14 of the 15 swimmers we brought scored for us. Amanda Nicholson obviously had a great meet for us, and I thought our seniors finished off their careers very well. There were some very impressive swims. We're pretty young, so hopefully we'll be back here again."

Senior Crissy Haley provided a nice swan song for the Ephs, placing sixth in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:06.36. Ann Marie Zollo was 10th in the same event with a time of 2:07.22. First-year Ellen Ramsey provided another top-10 finish when she placed 10th in the 200 back with a time of 2:05.13.

Williams also had its 400 free relay team of Nancy McInerney, Jillian Hancock, Sophia Sequeira and Olivia Card-Childers place eighth with a time of 3:32.26. In addition, senior Michelle Kurkul managed to place 12th in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:23.85, and Christina Metcalf was 17th in the same event with a time of 2:25.13.

First-year Card-Childers provided a 15th-place finish in the 100 free with a time of 53.03 seconds.