Sticco-Ivins Wins 3-Meter Diving Title; Blue in Third After Day Two of NEWMACs
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Wellesley College sophomore diver Maura Sticco-Ivins (Framingham, Mass.) set a new school record of 529.50 to win the 3-Meter (11 dives) title on day two of the 2016 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Swimming and Diving Championships on Friday at MIT's Zesiger Center pool.
Blue swimming and diving currently sits in third place with 274 points after two days of competition. The Blue trail host MIT (461 points) and Springfield (356 points). Coast Guard (259 points) and Wheaton (235) round out the top five, followed by WPI (194) in sixth, Smith (164 points) in seventh, Clark (148 points) in eighth, Mont Holyoke (141 points) in ninth and Babson (92 points) in tenth.
The title is the third NEWMAC Championship and First Team All-Conference honor for Sticco-Ivins, following her victories in both the 1 and 3-Meter events at the 2015 NEWMAC Championships. The defending NCAA 3-Meter National Champion, Sticco-Ivins now holds all four Wellesley school diving records.
In all, the Blue earned three of the top nine spots in 3-Meter diving, as sophomore Emily Moore (Milwaukee, Wis.) and junior Maddie Stern (Phoenix, Ariz.) finished in eighth and ninth place, respectively. Moore scored 439.75 and Stern totaled 435.75.
Wellesley also secured a third place finish in the evening's final event, the 400 Medley Relay. After registering a time of 3:52.72 in the preliminaries, the Blue squad of seniors Dorothy Ren (San Jose, Calif.) and Charlotte Harris (Cincinnati, Ohio), first year Karen Wang (Holmdel, N.J.) and senior Ieva Galinyte (Irvine, Calif.) touched the wall in 3:53.24 in the finals.
Earlier in the evening, Galinyte and Harris also turned in strong performances in the 500 Free. Galinyte took sixth in the event, registering a mark of 5:05.94 in the final, following a time of 5:05.25 in her preliminary heat. Harris used a time of 5:12.09 to win the B-Final and take eleventh overall in the event after narrowly missing the A-Final with a time of 5:11.88 in the preliminaries.
The rest of the team's top-times belonged to the Blue's talented first year class. Wang took ninth in the 200 IM, recording a season-best time of 2:10.39 in the preliminaries before registering a mark of 2:11.01 in the finals.
Jessica Feng (Princeton, N.J.), Crystal Zhu (Chelmsford, Mass.), Sunny Chiang (Troy, Mich.) and Cathy Chen (Parsippany, N.J.) opened the day with a sixth place time of 1:39.31 in the 200 Free Relay. Cathy Chen also went on to add a seventh place performance in the 50 Free sprint, touching the wall in 24.65.
The NEWMAC Championships continue on Saturday with preliminary action set to get underway at 10:00 AM and finals scheduled for 6:30 PM. Tomorrow's schedule includes the 400 IM, 100 Fly, 200 Free, 100 Breast, 100 Back and 200 Medley Relay. For more, check out the links below: