Blue Swimming & Diving Wins 19th Straight Seven Sisters Title

WELLESLEY, Mass. – Wellesley College swimming & diving captured the program's 19th consecutive, and 25th overall, Seven Sisters Swimming & Diving Championship on Sunday afternoon at Chandler Pool. 

Wellesley won three of the seven events on the second day of competition to finish with 1212 points. Vassar College took second, finishing as Seven Sister runner-up for the first time since 2011 with 779.5 points. Mount Holyoke College finished third with 681 points, followed by Smith College in fourth with 629.5 points and Bryn Mawr College in fifth with 225 points.

Wellesley sophomore diver Maura Sticco-Ivins (Framingham, Mass.) opened the day by winning her second Seven Sisters title of the weekend, this time on the 3-Meter board. Sticco-Ivins set a new Seven Sisters record with a score of 514.90, breaking her own record of 512.80 from 2015.

Records continued to fall as the final swimming session of the championship got underway. After setting a pair of Seven Sisters standards on Saturday, Mount Holyoke senior Cathleen Pruden (Raleigh, N.C.) opened Sunday by crushing her own record in the 1650 Free when she set a new mark of 17:19.99. The time was also good for an NCAA B Cut.

Pruden's weekend wouldn't be complete until she set a fourth Seven Sisters record in the 200 Breast. The Mount Holyoke senior again broke her own time in setting a new championship record of 2:23.77.

Wellesley senior Dorothy Ren (San Jose, Calif.) registered an NCAA B Cut of her own in the 200 Back, taking down the Seven Sisters and Wellesley school records in the process. Ren swam to a time of 2:04.08, eclipsing the Seven Sisters record of 2:09.91 set by Vassar's Emily Love in 2009 and the Wellesley mark of 2:06.55 set by Emma Mrkonic in 2014.

The Vassar duo of Julia Cunningham (Yardley, Pa.) and Sammy Stone (Wake forest, N.C.) took the remaining individual titles on Sunday. Stone registered a time of 54.98 in the 100 Free to record her third freestyle win of the weekend. Cunningham added a 200 Fly title to her 100 Fly win on Saturday, touching the wall in 2:05.55.

The Blue capped the weekend with a victory in the final event, the 400 Free Relay. Sophomore Fiona Chung (Lexington, Mass.), first year Sunny Chiang (Troy, Mich.), sophomore Patricia Chen (Natick, Mass.) and first year Cathy Chen (Parsippany, N.J.) combined for a time of 3:40.47 to win the event.

Wellesley College swimming & diving will return to action at Chandler Pool next Saturday, January 30, versus Bates and Connecticut College.