Women’s Swimming Powers Past Western New England University, 144-116

CHICOPEE, Mass. – Elms College senior Devon DeGrazia (Westport, Mass.) set a new school and pool record in the 200-meter freestyle and a new school mark in the 100-meter freestyle to help pace the Blazers to a 144-116 victory over Western New England University in Wednesday evening's women's swim meet at Partyka Natatorium.

With the win, Elms improves to 3-7 overall, while Western New England moves to 1-5 on the season.

DeGrazia sprinted to a time of 2:14.24 in the 200-meter freestyle besting her previous school mark of 2:14.82 and the pool mark of 2:14.61 which was set in 2006. She also glided to a time of 1:02.61 in the 100-meter freestyle, taking one-hundredth of a second off her own record of 1:02.62.

DeGrazia also won the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 5:00.55. Freshman Sarah Swart (Willington, Conn.) also earned a victory in the 800-meter freestyle (11:29.36), while freshman Kelly O'Connell (Monson, Mass.) and senior Jillian Francis (Methuen, Mass.) placed third and fourth respectively with times of 11:45.00 and 13:07.99. Junior Erika Aponte (Palmer, Mass.) earned first place in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 31.47.

Swart tallied a second place finish in the 400-meter freestyle (5:34.60) and a third place mark in the 50-meter freestyle (32.13), while senior Kelly Gilhooly (Bloomfield, Mass.) registered a pair of second place times in the 50-meter backstroke (37.60) and the 100-meter backstroke (1:22.41).

Freshman Abigail Will (Hopkinton, Mass.) touched the wall second in three races including the 200-meter butterfly (3:10.79), the 50-meter butterfly (33.43) and the 100-meter individual medley (1:19.63), while freshman Brianna Sylvester (Springfield, Mass.) came in second in the 50-meter breaststroke (41.36), the 100-meter breaststroke (1:30.18) and glided to a third place finish in the 100-meter IM in a time of 1:26.35.

Senior Gabrielle Calvanese (Agawam, Mass.) earned a pair of third place honors in the 50-meter and 100-meter breaststroke events with respective times of 43.63 and 1:37.46, while Aponte tabbed third place in the 100-meter freestyle (1:18.50), freshmen Rebecca Carterud (South Windsor, Conn.) finished third in the 200-meter freestyle (2:37.93), Madeline Heelon (Agawam, Mass.) placed third in the 50-meter backstroke (38.49) and Kim Panetta (Belchertown, Mass.) clocked a third place time of 38.03 in the 50-meter butterfly.

Elms' 200-meter medley relay A team of Gilhooly, Calvanese, Panetta and Aponte earned first place with a time of 2:27.60, while the B team of Carterud, sophomore Crystal Archibald (Portland, Maine), senior Stephanie Konstantinidis (Holyoke, Mass.) and Heelon came in third with a time of 2:50.14.

The 200-meter freestyle relay tandem of DeGrazia, Aponte, Swart and Will clocked a winning mark of 2:04.46 in the final event of the meet.

Elms is back in action on Saturday, January 18 at Norwich University at 1:00 p.m.