Sports

Brophy, Jacobi Swim at Nationals As Holbrook Captures Third Place

The Engineers put the finishing touches on their third consecutive top 20 finish at the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday, while senior Doria M. Holbrook ’08 closed her career as the top diver in Institute history. Holbrook won her eighth All-America honor in as many tries.

Holbrook finished fourth overall on the three-meter with a score of 490.40. Despite easily topping her championship score of last year, Holbrook slipped from first to fourth after the preliminaries as the first three finishers shattered the existing national record. Holbrook also finished third in the one-meter competition, scoring 428.65 to hold off Calvin College’s Erica Duer, who made a late push for the bronze.

Sasha B. Brophy ’08 delivered an electrifying performance in the 200-yard freestyle, shaving nearly three seconds off her personal best to finish sixth in Friday’s preliminaries with an Institute-record and NEWMAC Open-record time of 1:52.64. Brophy finished eighth in the finals with a time of 1:53.86.

Amy E. Jacobi ’11 also enjoyed a good first trip to nationals, finishing seventh in the consolation finals on Friday in the 100-yard fly. Jacobi split 57.67 seconds in the morning and 57.71 seconds at the evening session.

Brophy swam 5:06.65 to finish 24th in the 500-yard freestyle and Jacobi split 24.47 seconds to close in 21st in the 50-yard freestyle during Thursday’s preliminaries.

MIT participated in only two events on the final day of the meet, with Brophy and Jacobi returning from strong efforts earlier in the weekend to compete in the 100-yard freestyle. In the final race of her collegiate career, Brophy delivered another solid effort by placing 25th in the prelims with a time of 53.13 seconds. Jacobi finished 36th during the morning session in a clip of 54.05 seconds.

MIT finished 19th out of 52 scoring teams to earn its highest finish at the NCAA Championships since securing 16th place during the 1988-89 campaign. Kenyon College cruised to its 22nd national title in the past 25 years.