MIT captured its seventh consecutive New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men's Swimming and Diving Championship on Sunday night at WPI's Sports & Recreation Center Pool.
The Engineers accumulated 1,509 points as the host Engineers logged 1,066. U.S. Coast Guard Academy finished third (794) and Springfield College placed fourth (671). Wheaton College rounded out the top five with 586 points. Babson College came home sixth (385) and Clark University was seventh (233).
MIT freshman Dougie Kogut and Coast Guard senior Christian Brindamour were named the NEWMAC Co-Swimmers of the Year while the Engineer newcomer was also selected as the NEWMAC Rookie of the Year. Springfield senior Jack Lewis repeated as NEWMAC Diver of the Year for his performances earlier in the four-day competition.
Kogut set a pair of meet records on the final night with a 1:48.41 in the 200-yard backstroke and a 1:49.79 in the 200-yard butterfly. Brindamour, meanwhile, added the 100-yard freestyle (45.35) title to his collection on Sunday. Lewis scored 512.20 on the 1-meter board and 565.30 on the 3-meter board for a total of 1077.50 points. It is the eighth consecutive year a Pride diver has taken home the award.
MIT's Brad Jokubaitis was the runner up in the 200 back (1:50.05) as was Thomas Norris in the 200 fly (1:51.87) and Austin Fathman in the 100-yard freestyle. Both All-Conference honorees in the 200 back, 200 fly and 100 free achieved B cuts. Cambridge's Engineers also went 1-2 in the 1,650-yard freestyle with Parker Greene winning the title in 16:06.28, just .17 seconds ahead of Scott Mayberry.
Springfield's Michael Normoyle was just shy of his own meet record set in 2013 with a winning time of 2:02.23 in the 200-yard breaststroke as MIT's Ben Bauchwitz claimed silver with a 2:03.05. Austin Fathman, Josh Tomazin, Ben Bauchwitz, and Daryl Neubeiseer ended the meet with a 3:01.21 to claim the 400-yard freestyle relay while the WPI quartet of Ben List, Karim Elsayed, Jon Decelle and Andrew Bauer turned in a 3:03.63 for second place.
MIT totaled 1,278 points during the four-day event. Springfield College placed second (840) as Wellesley College finished third (751). Host WPI delivered 704 points for fourth place and Wheaton College landed in fifth (552). U.S. Coast Guard Academy took sixth (477.5) while Mount Holyoke College was seventh (552), Smith College was eighth (367), Clark University was ninth (297) and Babson College was 10th (174).
Mount Holyoke's Cathleen Pruden, who was named the NEWMAC Swimmer of the Year, began the night with the 1,650-yard freestyle title in a time of 17:07.26. She was followed by Clark's Melissa Orzechowski with a 17:18.57.
Wellesley's Maura Sticco-Ivins swept the diving events to haul in NEWMAC Diver of the Year hardware. She scored 493.75 on the 1-meter board on Sunday after a 473.85 performance on the 3-meter board on Friday. Springfield's Melanie Avdoulos took second in Sunday's 1-meter competition with a score of 481.10
MIT's Amanda Wu was voted the NEWMAC Rookie of the Year after helping two relays to gold and adding an individual title over the course of the event.
Veronika Jedryka, Lena Yang, Jessica Chen and Emmie Ryan punctuated MIT's team victory with a meet and NEWMAC record in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:26.51). The Wellesley foursome of Charlotte Harris, Dorothy Ren, Leah Furman and Hannah Augst combined for a second-place time of 3:3:33.02.
Cambridge's Engineers went 1-2 in the 200-yard backstroke with Jedryka (2:04.04) besting teammate Kate Yu (2:08.60). The Cardinal and Gray also took the top two spots in the 100-yard freestyle as Yang won with a 51.95 and Ryan followed with a 52.01.
Springfield's Emily Medeiros took the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:19.49. MIT's Joanna Han secured the second spot for MIT with a 2:20.87.
MIT's Teresa De Figueiredo achieved a B cut and struck gold in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:08.19 as Wellesley's Sarah May was second with a time of 2:08.78.
WPI Men
WPI Men’s Swimming & Diving closed out its second NEWMAC Championship Meet with depth and versatility, boasting the third-place finisher or better in five of the six Day 4 events. Those results helped the meet hosts maintain their second-place position, finishing runner-up to MIT for a second straight year.
The WPI men finished ahead of five other NEWMAC teams with a total of 1,066 points. That couldn’t compete with the Cambridge Engineers grand total 1,509 points, but sat well ahead of third-place Coast Guard with 794.
Andrew Bauer (Cumberland, RI) took third with a school record in the 100-yard freestyle (45.59), while David Smallwood (Bangor, ME) did the same in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:51.89. Tim Petri (Eksjo, Sweden) had an impressive third-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:05.22) and Matt Houghton (Berkley, MA) completed the circle, grabbing third in the 200-yard backstroke (1:53.41) as the only WPI swimmer to make the ‘A’ final in that race.
Bauer finished one spot ahead of senior captain Ben List (Bedford, MA) (45.67) in the 100 free as both met the NCAA-B standard. It caps an outstanding meet for Bauer, who had two earlier victories in the 200-yard freestyle and 800-yard freestyle relay, while also taking second in the 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle relay.
He also closed out the meet with a second-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay (3:03.63), as Bauer, List, Karim Elsayed (Cairo, Egypt) and Jonathan Decelle (Rumson, NJ) combined for WPI’s best finish of the day.
Similar to the 100 free, Petri and Andrew Kelleher (Poughquag, NY) finished back-to-back near the top of the 200 breaststroke. Petri’s time of 2:05.22 met the NCAA-B cut and just edged out the fourth-place Kelleher (2:06.67). Adam McNally (Leominster, MA) rounded out the WPI scoring in that event with the 17th-best time (2:13.76).
Smallwood was the top WPI swimmer in the 200 fly, but he and fifth-place Seth MacDonald (Sherill, NY), who touched in 1:53.15, both met the NCAA-B cut standard.
Elsayed rounded out the ‘A’ final (10th, 1:58.28), but the hosts also did plenty of damage in the ‘B’ final as four more swimmers scored. Matt Houghton finished second in the ‘B’ race (1:58.07), followed by Cameron Back (St. Louis, MO) (13th, 1:59.37), Trevor Gehring (Wildwood Crest, NJ) (17th, 2:05.26) and James Macfarlane (Ijamsville, MD) (20th, 2:10.73), which gave the Crimson and Gray seven scorers in that event alone.
Although MIT dominated the top four spots in the 1,650-yard freestyle, WPI cleaned up thereafter with six swimmers scoring across the ‘A’ and ‘B’ finals.
Senior Nick Houghton (Berkley, MA) led the WPI contingency, coming in sixth with a time of 16:32.93. Macfarlane finished two spots behind Houghton in eighth (16:50.77), while Craig Barrett (Edinburgh, Scotland) rounded out the top 10 with a time of 16:58.43.
Patrick Lebold (Worcester, MA) (17:21.26) had the 12th-best time, while Blake Cornachini (Branford, CT) (14th, 17:23.94) and Sam Carley (Trumbull, CT) (15th, 17:44.78) joined Lebold in the top half of the ‘B’ final finishers.
Although he couldn’t match the 100 free exploits of Bauer and List, Elsayed also left his mark in the sprint event, finishing seventh in 46.23. Nathan Hughes (Arlington, VA) came in 10th (47.22), while Decelle won the ‘B’ final in 46.72 and Frederick Burgwardt (Mendon, NY) took 15th place overall (47.30)
Three more swimmers scored in the 200 backstroke ‘B’ final, as Alex Powers (Glocester, RI) finished first in that race with a time of 1:56.28, which was eighth-fastest overall. Barrett came in 18th place (2:00.67), with Back clocking in right behind him (19th, 203.58).
Rounding out the WPI scoring was the 400 freestyle relay ‘B’ squad, which finished second to MIT in its race, just as the ‘A’ team did. The group of Hughes, Burgwardt, MacDonald and Powers clocked in at 3:06.94, which gave them the fifth-fastest time in either of the finals.
WPI now awaits the announcement of its potential NCAA Division III qualifiers.
WPI Women
The WPI Women's Swimming & Diving team finished out the four-day NEWMAC Championship Meet on a high note with a school record time in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The sixth-place team of freshmen Jenny Day (Chelmsford, MA) and Emily Matsco (Windham, NH) and sophomores Emily Martin (Penfield, NY) and Eva Childers (Henniker, NH) touched the wall in 3:35.53 to close out a two-year run as NEWMAC meet hosts.
That same quartet also set the WPI record in the 800-yard freestyle relay on Day 1 of the meet.
The Crimson and Gray smashed through last year's inaugural point total of 567.5, racking up 704 points this time around to finish fourth out of 10 teams in competition. MIT repeated as NEWMAC champions, running away with the title with 1,278 points. Springfield finished second (840 points) followed by Wellesley in third place (751).
Veronica Nikolaki (Athens, Greece) had the top finish of the day, taking third place in the 1-meter dive with 478.75 points. Nikolaki had also taken fourth place in the 3-meter dive back during Friday's night session. Freshman Hayley Poskus (Middleboro, MA) came in 15th in the 1-meter dive with 319 points.
The WPI women also started Day 4 on the upswing as Day (5th, 17:45.79) and Matsco (6th, 18:09.84) finished back-to-back in the top six of the 1,650-yard freestyle, combining to pick up 35 points.
Day shone brightly in her first NEWMAC Championships. Along with three top six finishes in relays, she also grabbed sixth place in the 500-yard freestyle on Day 2, and fourth in the 400-yard individual medley on Day 3.
The Crimson and Gray's top individual event on Sunday was the 200-yard butterfly, with three top eight finishers.
Martin hustled to fourth place (2:12.33), while Amanda Konieczny (West Springfield, MA) followed soon after in sixth (2:13.65) and then freshman Kaitlin Travers (Northampton, MA) after that in eighth place (2:17.48).
The speedster Martin was also the Engineers' top finisher in the 100-yard freestyle. She was the only 'A' final competitors, coming in eighth (53.69), while Childers took fourth in the 'B' final with a time of 54.46.
The WPI women didn't have anyone in the 'A' final of the 200-yard breaststroke, but that didn't stop Nysa Casha (Andover, MA) from posting the eighth-best time (2:26.87) as she won the 'B' final. Allysa Grant (Framingham, MA) finished 15th overall (2:31.58), followed by Zoe Eggleston (Newtown, CT) (17th, 2:32.44) and Travers (20th, 2:36.88).
Marissa Patterson (Hampton, NH) followed Casha's lead, winning the 200-yard backstroke 'B' final in 2:11.89. Like with Casha, it was the eighth-fastest time overall. Julia Bushell (Windham, NH) finished in 13th place (2:13.49), while Jamie Freud (Amherst, NH) turned in a 16th-place result (2:15.01).
Completing the WPI scoring was the the 400 free relay 'B' team, which finished 13th, but had the ninth-fastest time overall (3:38.70) with a group of Casha, Grant, Thea Reymann (Seaside Park, NJ) and Tori Claverie (Derry, NH).
Nikolaki will compete in next weekend's NCAA Diving Regionals at Springfield, while the rest of the WPI women now await the announcement of any potential NCAA Division III qualifiers.
