Colgate Women Swimmers Down Army/Lafayette to Finish Undefeated

Emily Murphy

WEST POINT, N.Y. (1/31/09) – Emily Murphy (Syracuse, N.Y.), Erin McGraw (Penfield, N.Y.), and Ashley Bottger (Weston, Conn.) were all triple winners as the Colgate women's swimming and diving team finished the regular season undefeated by claiming a pair of dual meet victories over Army and Lafayette, Saturday afternoon at Crandall Pool.

The Raiders, who finished 10-0 during the regular season, downed Army 188-96 and defeated Lafayette 191-101.

Colgate claimed the top two places in six events and went one,two,three in three more races. The Raiders won every swimming event, except the final two. Colgate swam the 200 IM and 200 free relay races as exhibitions, but had the best times in those events as well.

Murphy, McGraw, and Erica Derlath (Garden City, N.Y.) led top three sweeps in the three events.

Murphy swam a 1:05.47 to claim the 100 breast ahead of Courtney Callahan (Tarrytown, N.Y.) and Caitlin Curran (Alpharetta, Ga.), who swam times of 1:06.07 and 1:08.63. The following event, Derlath, Emily Kelly (Potomac, Md.), and Jenna Daly (Garden City, N.Y.) duplicated the feat in the 200 fly. Derlath won with a time of 2:07.09, while Kelly (2:09.45) and Daly (2:09.65) finished second and third respectively. The final sweep came in the 100 fly as McGraw (55.06) won the event with Caren Guyett (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) and Sarah Button (Mendham, N.J.) finishing second and third with times of 55.29 and 58.04.

Colgate got off to a strong start in the opening event by claiming first and second in the 400 medley relay. Bev Walker (Marietta, Ga.), Murphy, McGraw and Bottger combined to swim a 3:50.06 to finish ahead of the Raiders' second team of Button, Curran, Lisa Marchi (Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Emily Peck (Brooktondale, N.Y.) which tallied a 3:58.36.

McGraw (1:50.43) and Marchi (1:55.93) finished one, two in the 200 free; Kelly (5:08.53) and Daly (5:08.81) placed first and second in the 500 free; Bottger (24.32) and Peck (24.44) claimed the top spots in the 50 free; Bottger (51.90) and Marchi (52.27) in the 100 free, while Curran (2:28.55) and Callahan (2:32.24) went one-two in the 200 breast.

Other first place efforts included Walker in the 100 back (58.70) and 200 back (2:10.71), and Guyett in the 1650 free (17:38.03).

Becky Fisher (Cooperstown, N.Y.) placed third in one-meter diving (196.90) and Kim Siembieda (Narbeth, Pa.) wrapped up top three efforts for Colgate in the 200 back (2:14.10).

The Raiders will return to action, February 19-21 as they will try to defend their league title at the Patriot League Championships, which will be hosted by Bucknell.

Final Results

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