By Jimmy Brooks, News Correspondent

Led by junior swimmer Jill Kearns, the swimming & diving team improved to 4-3 Saturday after beating UMass-Amherst 160-129.

Kearns turned in one of the strongest performances of the day, setting a record in the 100-yard individual medley (IM), trumping a seven-year-old record.

Kearns time of 1:01.62 topped former record holder Sarah Reddick’s time of 1:01.73, and was good enough for first place in Saturday’s meet. But Kearns’ day wasn’t over yet. The Milton native posted another first-place finish when she won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 58.82.

Kearns added a third-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle, clocking in at 5:14.87.

“I was really happy with how I did,” Kearns said. “I hadn’t raced the 100 IM since I was 10 or so, so I wasn’t sure how it was going to go.”

The Huskies pulled away with a first-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay with a team of sophomores Nicole Colucci and Chelsea Lim, freshman Julia Alvarez and senior Sarah Martin. The foursome emerged from the pool with a time of 1:50.11.

“We definitely learned a few things from this meet,” head coach Roy Coates said. “I told the girls to go out there and give it their all the first half of the race. They’ve trained hard, so I knew they were in good enough shape to close the races out.”

In the 500-yard freestlye, freshmen Adriana Sepulveda and Colleen McCormack took first and second, posting times of 5:07.43 and 5:14.03 respectively. Kearns’ third-place finish completed the sweep.

Freshman Jenny Doolin said she was pleased with the team’s overall performance.

“I just think we did well in general,” Doolin said. “We put a lot of work in during the week, and it payed off.”

Northeastern finished first in the 50-yard backstroke and the 50-yard breaststroke as well, with freshman Dana Schleif finishing at 28.50 to win the backstroke event and Alvarez taking first in the breaststroke race with a time of 30.83.

Alvarez and Schleif struck again when Alvarez claimed first place in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:06.42, and Schleif won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:00.16.

The diving team fared just as well, and sophomore Rachael Peterson captured second place in the one-meter event with a score of 243.15, as well as a first place finish in the three-meter, posting a 257.47, although the event was an exhibition.

The Huskies’ overall performance and final results were reminiscent of their performance against UMass just weeks ago at the Terrier Invitational. Although the Huskies finished second to Boston University, they finished second and beat six other schools, including UMass.

“This meet was a little different than other ones this year just because we went in with a solid idea of who UMass was,” Kearns said. “We already raced them at the Terrier and beat them, so I think we had to take a different approach to it this time around.”

Seniors Rachel Mondello and Erica Smotrycz claimed the top two spots in the 25-yard freestyle, concluding the race with times of 12.20 and 12.37, respectively.

Smtrycz also added a first-place finish in the 100-yard freestlye, touching the wall at 53.64.

Adriana Sepulveda won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:55.39, and sister Julia Sepulveda placed third at 1:56.31.

The race marked the last time the team will suit up in 2010, as the next substantial activity takes place in January 2011, when the team travels to Puerto Rico for its annual, week-long training trip.

Puerto Rico is no vacation, and the swimmers know what they are in for when they make the trip.

“The weather’s going to be really nice, but it’s not like were going to be sitting around doing nothing,” Kearns said. “Were going to be working hard pretty much the whole time. Maybe at night well get to relax a little.”

Despite the strong performance by his team, Coates added that there is always something his swimmers can work on.

“Things went really well, but we can definitely work on our underwater turns and maximizing the advantages of staying underwater out of the blocks,” Coates said. “We’re going to continue to work on what the girls did so well, which was starting the races off as hard as they can. They did a great job, but we can always get better.”