Park (left) and Wegner (right) helped rewrite the Blue record book over the weekend at the MIT Invitational.
Park (left) and Wegner (right) helped rewrite the Blue record book over the weekend at the MIT Invitational.
Posted: Dec 08, 2019

Swim & Dive Takes 3rd at MIT Invite; Wegner, Park Break More Program Records

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Sophomore Jessica Wegner (Taipei, Taiwan), first year Elizabeth Park (Dix Hills, N.Y.) and the Wellesley College swimming & diving team closed out the weekend in third place following three days of competition at the 2019 MIT Winter Invitational.

Tufts took first place with 1683 points. MIT finished as the runner-up with 1371.5 points and the Blue captured third with 601.5 points. Wheaton finished fourth (554), while RPI was fifth (536), Simmons took sixth (336), and Keene State was seventh (213).

A day after setting the program record in the 100 IM, Wegner finished in first place in the 100 Fly, breaking her own school record of 56.44 with an NCAA B-Cut of 56.40. Park, who set the program mark in the 100 Breast on Saturday, set a new program record in the 200 Breast, racing to a time of 2:25.36 during Sunday's prelims before taking fourth place in 2:24.09 in the final. Park's new mark eclipsed the previous record of 2:25.47 set by Charlotte Harris '16 in 2015. Park also took 10th in the 200 IM in 2:13.84.

In Sunday's opening event, Park and Wegner teamed with first year Shawyuan Hsu (Taipei, Taiwan) and junior Hannah May (Cincinnati, Ohio) to take seventh in the 200 Medley Relay. The Blue 'A' Relay earned a time of 1:49.46. Hsu was also Wellesley's top finisher in the 200 Back, finishing 17th in 2:16.75, while May took third in the 100 Free in 52.87, just three spots ahead of teammate Danielle Peterson (Livingston, N.J.), who finished sixth in 53.90. May's time was just three-tenths of a second off the Blue program mark of 52.84.

May, Wegner, sophomore Marisa Papagelis (Westborough, Mass.), and Peterson closed out the weekend with a sixth place time in the 400 Free Relay. Wellesley's 'A' Relay finished with a time of 3:36.74. Wellesley's 'B' relay of Park, sophomore Julie Mason (Lakeville, Mass.), sophomore Shelby Ripp (St. Louis, Mo.), and Hsu was 13th in 3:44.31. Ripp was also the top Blue finisher in the 500 Free on Sunday, taking 14th in 5:17.98.

Wellesley will return after break to host Babson and Coast Guard in the first of back-to-back meets at Chandler Pool on Friday, January 10, at 1:00 PM.