Blue Swimming & Diving Tops Mount Holyoke for First Win of 2016-17
WELLESLEY, Mass. – Wellesley College swimming & diving earned victories in 14 of 16 events to take a 199-88 dual meet win over Seven Sisters and New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) rival Mount Holyoke College on Saturday afternoon at Chandler Pool.
The Blue victory, their first of 2016-17, helps Wellesley improve to 1-3 on the season. Mount Holyoke is also now 1-3 in dual meets.
Wellesley opened the day with a victory in the 200 Medley Relay, as Sunny Chiang (Troy, Mich.), Danielle Peterson (Livingston, N.J.), Karen Wang (Holmdel, N.J.), and Crystal Zhu (Chelmsford, Mass.) raced to the win in 1:54.68. Chiang, Peterson and Wang would all go on to add individual victories throughout the course of the day, with Chiang totaling three, Peterson two, and Wang adding one.
Chiang led a 1-2 Wellesley finish in the 200 Free, winning the event in 2:02.32 as Wang finished alongside her with a competitive time of 2:02.68. Chiang also recorded a time of 2:14.87 to win the 200 Back and a mark of 2:17.19 to win the final individual event of the day, the 200 IM. Peterson earned wins in the 100 and 200 Breast with times of 1:11.14 and 2:35.39, respectively. Wang took first in the 100 Fly in 1:01.43.
Sophomore Cathy Chen (Parsippany, N.J.) won three events for the Blue on Saturday, taking victories in the 100 Back (1:01.37) and the 50 (25.48) and 100 (56.08) Freestyle events. Classmate Jessie Feng (Princeton, N.J.) finished second to Chen in the 100 Free, but earned a win in the 200 Fly earlier in the meet in 2:18.36. Feng also earned a runner-up finish in the 100 Fly (1:02.59).
First year Kayleigh Svensson (Palo Alto, Calif.) was the final Blue swimmer to win multiple individual events versus the Lyons. Svensson won both distance events, recording a time of 11:39.58 to win the 1000 Free and a mark of 5:39.80 to capture the 500 Free.
Mount Holyoke first year Samantha Nemivant (Scottsdale, Ariz.) won both diving events for the Lyons, totaling a score of 261.85 to win the 1-meter competition, before earning a mark of 243.05 to take the win on the 3-meter board.
The Blue sealed the 199-88 victory with a win in the 200 Free Relay. Sophomore Francesca Dong (Princeton Junction, N.J.) teamed with junior Lindsey Wu (Livingston, N.J.), Zhu, and Chen to win the event in 1:42.49.
The Blue will close out the fall semester Friday-Sunday, December 2-4, at the annual MIT Invitational. Mount Holyoke will be in action that same weekend at the Hamilton College Invitational.
