Swimming & Diving Wraps Up Busy Weekend at MIT Winter Invite

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Wellesley College swimming & diving wrapped up a busy weekend at the MIT Winter Invitational with the third and final day of competition on Sunday at the Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center Pool.

Wellesley finished fifth in the team standings, totaling 412 points. Columbia University took first with 1292 points, followed by NYU (1119), the host Engineers (875), Long Island University – Brooklyn (522) and the Blue.

Wellesley opened the final evening of competition with the first of four top-ten performances. The Blue's 'A' relay took eighth in the 200 Medley Relay, thanks to a time of 1:49.26 from first year Sunny Chiang (Troy, Mich.), seniors Charlotte Harris (Cincinnati, Ohio) and Dorothy Ren (San Jose, Calif.) and first year Cathy Chen (Parsippany, N.J.).

Ren went on to deliver the Blue's top individual performance of the evening with a third place finish in the 100 Fly. Wellesley's school record holder in the event, the senior touched the wall in 57.24. 

In the 500 Free, senior Ieva Galinyte (Irvine, Calif.) clocked in at 5:13.43 to finish in the top-ten. Galinyte then anchored the Blue's 400 Free Relay team to a seventh-place time, as she teamed with Harris, sophomore Patricia Chen (Natick, Mass.) and first year Cathy Chen (Parsippany, N.J.) to record a time of 3:36.96 in the weekend's final event.

Cathy Chen and Wellesley's first year swimmers turned in the remaining top-times for the Blue on the evening. Chen raced to a first-place finish in the B-Final of the 100 Free in 54.15, while Chiang added a second place time of 2:09.84 in the B-Final of the 200 Back. Karen Wang (Holmdel, N.J.) also took fifth in the B-Final of the 200 IM with a time of 2:14.09.

Wellesley swimming & diving will return home to Chandler Pool on Thursday, January 7, 2016 for a 1:00 PM tri-meet with New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) foes Babson and Coast Guard.