Blue Swimming & Diving Takes First Place in Sisters Invitational

WELLESLEY, Mass. -- Wellesley College takes first place in a dominant weekend in the Sisters Invitational inside Chandler Pool. The Blue capped off day two by winning five of seven events and totaled 1,591 points for the weekend. Mount Holyoke placed second with 865.5 points and in third was Merrimack with 541.5 points. Rounding out the invitational was Simmons with 514.5 points and Western New England with 199.5 points. 

The day began with the three meter diving session with two Blue divers in the mix. Junior Lily Duff (Scituate, Mass.) had a finals score of 169.70 on Sunday. Classmate Claire Moreland (San Francisco, Calif.) finished with a score of 138.75.

After two individual wins on Saturday, first year Cecilia Cai (Palo Alto, Calif.) doubled that total with wins in the 200 Back and the 200 Fly. She set a new personal best in the 200 Back at 2:11.94 and swam a 2:12.37 in the 200 Fly. Sophomore Mira Tang (Mercer Island, Wash.) earned the runner up in the 200 Back at 2:14.14 and teammate Angela Zhu (Bayside, N.Y.) swam a 2:24.63 in the 200 Fly to place second.

Sophomore McKaela Glanville (Menlo Park, Calif.) picked up her second win of the weekend with a time of 55.42 seconds in the 100 Free. A total of 39 swimmers competed in the event with Wellesley picking up three of the top four finishers. Ariana Mitsuoka (Centennial, Co.) clocked a 56.09 and Mellany Smith (West Orange, N.J.) at 56.73 to finish third and fourth respectively.

In the 200 yard breaststroke, first year Maya Hart (Menlo Park, Calif.) collected her first win with a time of 2:37.99. Just behind was teammate Elizabeth Park (Dix Hills, N.Y.) at 2:38.41.

The Blue dominated the final event of the day, taking first and second in the 400 yard Freestyle Relay. The squad of Mitsuoka, Cai, Glanville, and Jessica Wegner (Taipei, Taiwan) took the gold with a combined time of 3:41.18. In second was Mona Li (Cary, N.C.), Paulina Gonzalez (Caracas, Venezuela), Eugenia Ma (Princeton, N.J.), and Marisa Papagelis (Westborough, Mass.) at 3:51.67.

The Blue remain at home to host a dual meet with Coast Guard Academy on Friday, January 21 starting at 6:00 PM.