WELLESLEY, Mass. -- The Wellesley College swimming and diving team had a strong season-opening performance, hosting the 2011 Betty Spears Relays on Saturday afternoon in Chandler Pool. The non-scoring meet featured athletes from Bentley, Mount Holyoke, MIT, Smith, Tufts and Westfield State.

Wellesley recorded five event wins, finishing in the top-three in all 15 events. Tufts notched eight event victories, while Division-II Bentley touched first in two events.

The Blue 200-yard back/free relay team of first-years Tiffany Chen and Monica Gates, and sophomores Emma Mrkonic and Anne Hamilton, recorded a first-place finish in a time of 1:49.90, outdistancing Tufts by just over a second. Chen and Mrkonic then teamed up with first-year Veronica Lin to touch first in the 300-back relay, finishing in 3:05.91. Wrapping up the Blue relay victories, Chen and Mrkonic paired with first-year Kendra Waters and sophomore Keelin Nave to win the 400-medley relay in a time of 4:11.85.

Recording second place finishes for Wellesley in the swimming events were the 300-fly relay, the 200-medley relay, the 500-free crescendo relay and the 1,500-free relay teams. In the 300-fly relay, senior Olivia Hulme, junior Virginia Hung and Nave teamed up for a time of 3:08.59. Swimming the 200-medley relay, Mrkonic, Waters, Hulme and sophomore Megan Lambert touched second in a time of 1:57.02. In the 500-free crescendo relay, sophomore Mariam Amirkhanashvili, Hung, Hamilton and senior Melanie Kaplan finished second in a time of 5:04.77. Wrapping up the second-place finishes, the 1,500-free relay team of Hamilton, Chen and Nave finished in a time of 16:42.25.

Wrapping up the swimming highlights for the Blue, the 800-free relay team of first-year Grace Bachman, Kaplan, senior Stephanie Welch, and Nave touched third, just .02 behind second-place Tufts. Nave's split time of 1:57.59 was the only sub-2:00 split recorded in the entire race.

At the other end of the pool, Blue diver Hayley Goydan led the way with first place finishes in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. The sophomore recorded a score of 269.20 on the 1-meter board, while finishing with a 264.15 on the 3-meter board. First-year Gabby Cooper-Vespa recorded a sixth place finish on the 1-meter board, compiling 223.70 points, while recorded a ninth place finish on the 3-meter board, with a score of 199.75. Sophomore Kathryn Goffin also notched a top-ten finish, recording 183.95 points on the 3-meter board.

Wellesley swimming and diving is back in action a week from today, hosting Clark and Roger Williams at 2:00pm.