For the second consecutive year, the Wheaton College women's swimming and diving team used a second-place finish in the final event to clinch a victory over Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as the Lyons downed the nationally-ranked Engineers, 151-148 while also defeating Smith College, 196-102 during a double-dual meet on Saturday in Balfour Natatorium. The Lyon men fell against 14th-ranked MIT and now stand 2-5, while Wheaton's women are 6-2.
MIT's women, who are 19th in CollegeSwimming.com's national poll, are now 3-2 after also downing Smith, 205.5-92.5. The Pioneers are 3-3. The Engineer men remained perfect at 3-0 following a 224-48 victory against the Lyons.
Wheaton, which defeated MIT last season for the first time since 1993-94, extended its modest winning streak over the Engineers thanks to an important runner-up finish in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. With the Lyons holding a 147-135 edge heading into the race, they needed one of their quartets to place at least second, which is what senior Meg Miller (Duxbury, MA/Duxbury), sophomore Iris Meehan (Bar Harbor, ME/Mount Desert Island) and freshmen Dania Piscetta (Belmont, NH/Belmont) and Nicole Zais (Sudbury, MA/Lincoln-Sudbury Regional) did in a time of 3:43.46, coming within 0.07 seconds of MIT's winning foursome.
Senior Abby Pratt (Melrose, MA/Melrose) and sophomore Emily Sweatt (Portland, ME/Deering) paced the Lyons with a pair of individual victories apiece. Pratt won the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races in 24.62 and 53.58, respectively, while Sweatt swept the 100- and 200-yard breaststrokes in 1:09.96 and 2:31.96, respectively. The duo joined Zais and freshman Samantha Farrell (Reading, MA/Reading Memorial) on the winning 200-yard medley relay team, which clocked in at 1:52.78. Meehan rounded out her team's victories in the 200-yard backstroke at 2:14.87.
Another noteworthy feat was accomplished by Wheaton during a second-place finish, as Piscetta's time of 59.75 in the 100-yard butterfly was just 0.01 seconds shy of first place but broke a program record by 0.07 ticks. Pratt had held the former standard, set in February.
For the Lyon men, freshman Eddie Gillie (Haverhill, MA/Saint John's Prep) topped the 200-yard butterfly field in a time of 2:05.80. Wheaton also produced a pair of runner-up finishes, as senior Matt Jordan (Ellsworth, ME/Ellsworth) was 0.45 seconds short of first in the 100-yard freestyle, and classmate Matt Hurley (Belfast, ME/Belfast Area) came within 0.64 ticks of the winning time during the 200-yard backstroke.
Wheaton's teams are off until Saturday, January 12, when the squads travel to Wellesley College for a 1:00 p.m. meet. Both Lyon teams oppose Clark University and Vassar College, while the women's triple-dual meet also includes host Wellesley.
