Peyton Wang, Hannah May, Kayleigh Svensson, and Jessica Wegner set a new program mark in the 200 Free Relay.
Peyton Wang, Hannah May, Kayleigh Svensson, and Jessica Wegner set a new program mark in the 200 Free Relay.

200 Free Relay Sets Wellesley Swim/Dive Program Record on Day Two of NEWMACs

WORCESTER, Mass. -- First year Peyton Wang (Palo Alto, Calif.), sophomore Hannah May (Cincinnati, Ohio), junior Kayleigh Svensson (Palo Alto, Calif.), and first year Jessica Wegner (Taipei, Taiwan) set a new program record in the 200 Free Relay to lead Wellesley College swimming & diving on Friday at the 2019 New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Swimming & Diving Championships, hosted by WPI at the Sports & Recreation Center.

Through two days of competition, MIT is in first place with 469 points, while Wheaton is in second place with 305 points and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy is third with 291 points. Wellesley (249) trails fourth place Springfield (259) by ten points to round out the top five. Host WPI leads the next group with 173 points, with Mount Holyoke (146) currently in seventh, Babson (142) in eighth, Smith (124) in ninth, and Clark (122) in tenth.

Wang, May, Svensson, and Wegner broke the longest standing Wellesley program record during Friday's preliminaries, racing to a time of 1:37.97 to top the previous mark of 1:38.00 set by Savanna Johnson '09, RC Saint-Amour '07, Carolyn O'Hara '09, and Nina Johnson '07 in 2006. The Blue's A Relay then went on to lower their new mark during Friday's final, finishing with a time of 1:37.93 to take fourth overall in the event. 

May was also the top Wellesley finisher in the 500 Free, finishing just ahead of teammate Shelby Ripp (St. Louis, Mo.) in ninth overall with a time of 5:14.22. Ripp was tenth in 5:15.83, as the duo combined to score 27 points for the Blue in the final. Wegner went on to take ninth in 200 IM with a time of 2:14.54. Senior Sunny Chiang (Troy, Mich.) had the top time for the Blue in the 200 IM, taking eighth in 2:11.95. 

Svensson and Wang went on to combine for the top-two Blue times in the 50 Free. Svensson finished in seventh in the A Final in 24.64, while Wang was seventh in the B final in 24.80. Wang jumped up three spots from the morning session after finishing with the final qualifying spot in the preliminaries in 24.87. The Blue closed out the evening with a fifth place time in the 400 Medley Relay, where junior Danielle Peterson (Livingston, N.J.) joined Svensson, Wegner, and May to help the Blue to a time of 3:59.12. 

Blue divers Ingrid Henderson (Berkeley, Calif.) and Emma Roberts (Boxford, Mass.) did not advance to Friday evening's final after scoring 300.50 and 295.30, respectively, in the 1-meter prelims. The duo will return to action on the 3-meter board on Sunday. 

Day three begins with the prelims on Saturday at 10 a.m., followed by the finals session at 6 p.m. The events for Saturday include the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and the 200 medley relay.

2019 NEWMAC Swimming & Diving Championships: