CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Six school records, two NCAA cuts and an All-Conference honor highlighted day two action for the Wellesley College swimming and diving team at the 2013 New England Women's and Men's Athletic (NEWMAC) Championships. With 13 events complete at the MIT's Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center, the Blue are holding on to third place with 301 points.
Seven events were contested today, including the 200-medley relay, the 400-IM, the 100-fly, the 200-free, the 100-breast, the 100-back and the 800-free relay.
First-year Dorothy Ren led the way for the Blue with two NCAA cuts and an All-NEWMAC honor, while Ren, first-year Ieva Galinyte, first-year Charlotte Harris, and both the 200-medley and 800-free relay teams set new Wellesley records.
Kicking off today's finals session, the Blue's 200-medley relay team posted a program record time of 1:47.85. Ren and Harris paired with first-years Theresa Mitchell and Emily Sotomayor to earn third place points, while Ren hit an NCAA "B" cut and new school record in the 50-back (26.10). The previous Wellesley record in the relay was a 1:50.81 (RC Saint-Amour, Jenny Wu, Savanna Johnson, Carolyn O'Hara - 2007), and a 27.39 (Ren - 2012) in the 50-back.
Wellesley's "B" relay team also swam a sub-1:50.00 race, as junior Emma Mrkonic, sophomore Kendra Waters, first-year Suman Kumar and sophomore Monica Gates recorded a time of 1:49.92, the sixth fastest overall time in the event.
In the 100-fly, Ren earned her first-career All-NEWMAC honors, leading three Blue swimmers in the final session. She ranked second overall with an NCAA "B" cut and school record time of 56.61, breaking Keelin Nave's record of 57.61 set in 2011. Also making it to the evening swim in the 100-fly, Kumar ranked 12th overall with a 59.37 and Mitchell placed 16th with a 1:01.31. In the prelims, first-year Erin Yang narrowly missed a spot in the consolation final, ranking 17th with a 1:00.88.
Wellesley also had a strong showing in the 100-breast, where two swimmers made finals and another swam in the consolation. Harris ranked fifth overall in the event, touching in a program record of 1:07.06, while also tying the program best of 30.96 (Carolyn Jackson - 2011) with her split. Sotomayor finished seventh overall in the event 1:07.69 (initially breaking the school record by besting 1:08.08 - Carolyn Jackson - 2010), while Waters finished 12th in a 1:09.05.
In the 200-free, the Blue had just one swimmer in the evening session, but Galinyte made it count, posting a school record of 1:55.61 to finish ninth overall, including posting the fifth fastest swim of the night session. Galinyte broke a 15-year old record, set by Stephanie Christie who swam a 1:55.99 in 1998.
Wrapping up the individual events, Wellesley had three swimmers qualify to compete in the evening in both the 100-back and the 400-IM. In the 100-back, Mrkonic led the way, qualifying to the finals where she posted a 59.71 to finish sixth overall. Ren narrowly missed the finals, but finished second in her consolation, with a 59.13 to earn 10th place points. Junior Gabriela Kovacikova ranked 12th overall, finishing in 1:01.93. In the 400-IM, junior Anne Hamilton placed 10th (4:44.04), Gates ranked 11th (4:46.04), and sophomore Tiffany Chen finished 16th (4:58.37).
Closing out the evening, Wellesley's 800-free relay "A" team placed third overall with a program best time of 7:54.89. Harris, junior Mariam Amirkhanashvili, Hamilton and Galinyte teamed up to break Wellesley's previous record of 1:08.08 (Anne Hamilton, Dana Dutton, Mariam Amirkhamashvili, Keelin Nave - 2011).
Defending champion, MIT, maintains its overall lead with 738 points, followed by Springfield (443) and Wellesley (301). Coast Guard sits in fourth (218), Mount Holyoke is fifth (203), and Wheaton is sixth (188). Wrapping up the team scores are Clark (113), WPI (112), Babson (91), and Smith (73).
The 2013 NEWMAC Swimming and Diving Championship wraps up tomorrow, with prelims of the 200-back, 100-free, 200-breast, 200-fly, 400-free relay, and the 1,650-free beginning at 10:00am. 3-Meter diving will also be contested.
