Swimming & Diving Splits Tri-Meet With Tufts and MIT
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Spurred by a thrilling victory in the 200 Medley Relay, Wellesley College swimming & diving split a tri-meet with nationally ranked MIT and Tufts University on Saturday afternoon at MIT's Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center Pool. The Blue defeated Tufts, 163.50-136.50, while suffering a narrow 171-129 setback to No. 10 MIT.
Wellesley, now 7-1 overall in dual meets in 2015-16, opened the afternoon by taking first place in the 200 Medley Relay, as the team of first year Sunny Chiang (Troy, Mich.), seniors Charlotte Harris (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Dorothy Ren (San Jose, Calif.) and first year Cathy Chen (Parsippany, N.J.) won the event when Chen out-touched MIT sophomore MIT Amanda Wu (Cedar Park, Texas) to give Wellesley the top time of 1:49.96 by just a tenth of a second ahead of the Engineers' mark of 1:49.97.
Ren continued on to deliver a tremendous individual performance in the meet, adding to her relay victory by winning both the 100 Fly and the 200 IM. Ren captured the 100 Fly by just over two seconds with a time of 57.66. In the 200 IM, Ren had to outduel first year teammate Karen Wang (Holmdel, N.J.), as the duo combined to give the Blue a 1-2 sweep. Ren got the edge, finishing first in 2:10.54, followed by Wang's time of 2:13.00.
Ren and Wang also added second place times in the 100 Back and 200 Fly, respectively. Ren clocked in a 1:00.04 in the 100 Back, while Wang was the runner-up in the 200 Fly in 2:11.99.
The Blue grabbed five more second place finishes in the meet, trailing the Engineers in each event. Ieva Galinyte (Irvine, Calif.) accounted for two of the results, as the senior recorded a time of 10:52.55 in the 1000 Free and 5:17.08 in the 500 Free.
In the 200 Free, Harris grabbed second in 1:58.97, just off the first place pace of 1:58.00 set by MIT senior Kate Yu (San Jose, Calif.). Cathy Chen added the remaining individual runner-up results in the 50 Free sprint, with a time of 25.22. The Blue closed out the day with a time of 1:40.63 to take second in the 200 Free Relay thanks to the efforts of Harris, first year Crystal Zhu (Chelmsford, Mass.), Galintye and Cathy Chen.
In diving, sophomore Maura Sticco-Ivins (Framingham, Mass.) broke her own 3-meter school record for the second time in her last two competitions. Sticco-Ivins registered a score of 347.80, far eclipsing her previous best of 332.30 set last Saturday versus Smith. Classmate Emily Moore (Milwaukee, Wis.) was second on the 3-meter board with a score of 304.35. Sticco-Ivins was the Blue's top finisher on the 1-meter board, taking second with a score of 296.85.
Wellesley swimming & diving returns home to host the 2016 Seven Sisters Championship next weekend, January 23-24, at Chandler Pool. The two-day event opens on Saturday at 10:00 AM.