The initial night of the 2015 New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Swimming and Diving Championships saw a pair of repeat winners and Springfield claims the early lead at the WPI Sports & Recreation Center Pool. The winning individual or relay is named to the NEWMAC All-Conference First Team while the runner up is placed on the second team.
Springfield amassed 144 points followed by the hosts with 99. U.S. Coast Guard Academy is third (77) while Wheaton College is fourth (66) and MIT is fifth (64). Babson College sits sixth (57) and Clark University is seventh (51).
Jack Lewis repeated as the NEWMAC 1-meter diving champion with a score of 510.60. Andy Anderson from Coast Guard improved two spots from the preliminary dives to place second with a score of 435.51. The Pride’s overall lead was aided by third, fourth and fifth place finishes by Liam Barnes (434.97), Michael Card (425.40) and Trevor Sniffin (416.55) on the diving board.
WPI’s 800-yard freestyle relay team, meanwhile repeated as NEWMAC champions, breaking the pool and school record in a time of 6:45.47. The time posted by the quartet of David Smallwood, Alex Powers, Nathan Hughes and Andrew Bauer was better than the accepted entries in last year’s NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. The MIT foursome of Dougie Koght, Austin Fathman Daryl Neubeiser Scott Mayberry also came in under the 2014 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships qualifying time as they posted a 6:47.94.
The 200-yard freestyle relay, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard IM, 50-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relay will be contested on Friday. Trials kick off at 10:00 a.m. and the finals get underway at 6:00 p.m.
MIT holds a slim lead over host WPI following day one of the 2015 New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Swimming and Diving Championships at the Sports & Recreation Center Pool. The winning individual or relay is named to the NEWMAC All-Conference First Team while the runner up is placed on the second team.
Cambridge’s Engineers pace the field with 66 points while the hosts are two behind with 64. Wellesley College and Springfield College are tied in third with 54 points as Wheaton College sits fifth with 48. U.S. Coast Guard Academy (42) is in sixth while Mount Holyoke College (40) is seventh, Smith College (36) is eighth, Clark University (34) is ninth and Babson College (26) is 10th.
MIT and WPI went 1-2 in the championship final while the order was reversed in the consolation final. MIT’s Mary Thielking, Veronika Jedryka, Kate Yu and Emmie Ryan set the meet record and posted a time (7:32.30) that would have qualified for last year’s NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. The hosts team of Jenny Day, Eva Childers, Emily Matsco and Emily Martin broke their school record in a time of 7:42.54.
WPI won the consolation final to help bolster their team score as Thea Reyman, Jamie Freud, Tori Claverie and Amanda Konieczny clocked a 7:58.59 while the Cardinal and Gray team of Emily Tsang, Tammy Tai, Georgia Can De Zande and Hannah Huynh clocked a 7:59.77.
The action continues tomorrow with the 200-yard freestyle relay, 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard IM, 50-yard freestyle, 400-yard medley relay and 3-meter dive. Trials begin at 10:00 a.m. and finals commence at 6:00 p.m.
WPI Men
For the second consecutive year, host WPI Men’s Swimming and Diving opened the four-day NEWMAC championships with a relay win. The Engineers amassed 99 points on the night and stand in second place behind pace-leading Springfield.
The 800 freestyle relay team of David Smallwood (Bangor, ME), Alex Powers (Glocester, RI), Nathan Hughes (Arlington, VA) and Andrew Bauer (Cumberland, RI) came in first with a time of 6:45.47, which set the pool and team records.
Bauer, Hughes and Powers all swam on last year’s winning 800 free relay, which owned the previous pool record. The sophomore Bauer again had the fastest spit, finishing the anchor leg in 1:39.14 to beat their 2014 time by 3.49 seconds. The men's 800 free relay team meet the NCAA-B cut qualifying standard for a second straight year.
The men’s 800 free relay ‘B’ team took second in its heat and came in sixth-fastest of any team. The Engineers used a team of Andrew Kelleher (Poughquag, NY), Jonathan Decelle (Rumson, NJ), Seth MacDonald (Sherill, NY), Adam McNally (Leominster, MA) to finish in 6:56.91.
Matt Suarez (Needham, MA) grabbed sixth place in the 1-meter dive with a score of 378.63 points, while freshman Randy Melanson (Attleboro, MA) finished one place behind in seventh (363.06).
WPI Women
The WPI Women’s Swimming and Diving team kicked off the four day NEWMAC Championships with pair of history-making performances at the Sports & Recreation Center on Thursday evening. As a team, the Crimson and Gray totaled 60 points and are six points behind four-time defending champion MIT.
The quartet of Jenny Day (Chelmsford, MA), Eva Childers (Henniker, NH), Emily Matsco (Windham, NH) and Emily Martin (Penfield, NY) took second in the 800 freestyle in a time of 7:42.54. The women’s 800 free relay also broke the school record and came away with swimming all-conference honors for the first time in program history.
The women’s ‘B’ team of Thea Reymann (Seaside Park, NJ), Jamie Freud (Amherst, NH), Tori Claverie (Derry, NH), Amanda Konieczny (West Springfield, MA) won its heat and finished eighth-fastest overall (7:58.59), scooping up 22 points to put the WPI women in second place with 66 points, just two behind MIT. It marked the first time in school history that the WPI women have won a heat at the NEWMAC championship meet.
