Blue Swimming & Diving Takes Third Place at NEWMAC Championships; Sticco-Ivins Named NEWMAC Diver of the Year

WORCESTER, Mass. -- Wellesley College swimming & diving closed out the four-day 2015 NEWMAC Swimming & Diving Championships on Sunday afternoon at WPI's Sports & Recreation Center Pool. The Blue took home third place overall for the fourth straight year. 

First year diver Maura Sticco-Ivins earned her second victory of the weekend, scoring 493.75 to win the final of the 1-meter diving competition. A seven-time NEWMAC and four-time ECAC Regional Diver of the Week Award winner this season, Sticco-Ivins won both the 1 and 3-meter (500.50) boards at this weekend's conference championships to help her earn the NEWMAC Diver of the Year Award.

The Blue throughout the 200-Fly, as sophomore Sarah May earned an NCAA B cut with her time of 2:08.33 in the preliminaries of the 200-Fly. May then finished second in the 'A' Final of the event with a time of 2:08.78. Junior Misha Olynyk and senior Grace Bachman also qualified for the 'A' Final in the 200-Fly. Olynyk finished ninth with a time of 2:17.76, touching the wall just ahead of Bachman's time of 2:17.80.

Leah Furman finished fourth in the day's opening event, the 1,650-Free. The Blue sophomore touched the wall with a time of 17:37.00. 

Classmates Sharon Wu and Hannah Augst went on to finish seventh and eighth in the 200-Back, as Wu finished just ahead of her teammate with a time of 2:11.47. Augst recorded a time of 2:12.51.

First year Patricia Chen clocked the Blue's best time in the 100-Free, taking seventh in the B final of the event with her time of 54.84.

In the 200-Breaststroke, junior Charlotte Harris capped off a strong weekend with a seventh place time of 2:25.47. Harris and the Blue's 400-Free Relay 'A' team of Ren, Furman and Augst then closed out the weekend, earning the final 42 of Wellesley's 751 points with a second-place finish.

MIT totaled 1,278 points during the four-day event to win thier fifth straight NEWMAC championship. Springfield College placed second (840) as the Blue finished third (751). Host WPI delivered 704 points for fourth place and Wheaton College landed in fifth (552). U.S. Coast Guard Academy took sixth (477.5) while Mount Holyoke College was seventh (552), Smith College was eighth (367), Clark University was ninth (297) and Babson College was 10th (174).