MEDFORD – Senior Abby Claus (pictured) won three races as the Tufts University women's swimming and diving team opened the 2021-22 season with a 252-41 victory over Brandeis University at Hamilton Pool.
Tufts won all 14 swimming events in the meet. Jillian Cudney, one of the Jumbo sophomores making their collegiate debut, won two races and was part of a first-place relay as well.
Claus first won the 100 backstroke with a career-best time of 59.19 seconds. She was also the winner in the 200 backstroke with her 2:07.99 finish. She closed out her trifecta of success today with a 200 individual medley win (2:10.97).
Cudney swept the freestyle sprints with a 24.51 in the 50 and a 53.68 in the 100. She was also the lead leg in the 200 freestyle relay whose 1:38.68 was first. All-Americans Katelin Isakoff, Elle Morse and Mary Hufziger rounded out that strong foursome. Isakoff had been a 5:10.32 winner in the 500 freestyle earlier.
Nepal 2021 Olympian Gaurika Singh was the first Jumbo in the pool competitively today, leading off the 200 medley relay that won in a 1:48.71 time. She was joined by Abigail Miller, Mary Laurita and Katelin Ulmer. Laurita later won the 100 butterfly (58.52) and Ulmer had a 100 breaststroke win (1:06.83).
Two of the better Jumbo times of the day came from sophomore Katie Shelburne in the 1,000 freestyle with a 10:38.43 mark, and freshman Lara Wujciak's 2:06.43 in the 200 fly.
Sophomore Claire Brennan went 1:55.61 to win the 200 free and Emma van Duijnhoven scored first-place points with a 2:31.51 in the 200 breaststroke.
Brandeis does not have a diving team, but the Jumbos competed amongst themselves and Sydney Ho had the best scores in both one-meter (262.72) and three-meter (255.30).
Tufts competes at the MIT Winter Invitational next December 3-5.
