Garcia Repeats, Records Fall On Day One Of NEWMAC's
South Hadley, Mass. – Junior Eileen Garcia (New York, N.Y.) defended her 1-meter diving title with a NCAA B-Cut qualifying score of 476.00 and four other school records fell as the Cougars sit in sixth place after Day One of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) women's swimming and diving championships at Mount Holyoke College.
Senior Liz Rosen (North Attleboro, Mass.) set a new school mark with a time of 5:11.94 during the preliminary round of the 500-yard freestyle, and then posted an eighth place finish in the finals (5:12.20).
Gabriela Jijon-Nemalceff (Quito, Ecuador) set one record in the prelims of the 50-yard freestyle (24.90), and then lowered that mark with a sixth place finish in the finals (24.60).
In the 200 individual medley, Erin Smith (Carrollton, Texas) set a new school mark in the prelims as well (2:13.87), and then finished eighth with a time of 2:15.09.
Another record fell when Mollie Kleyboecker (Albuquerque, N.M.), Morgan King (Arlington, Mass.), Emily Newton (East Lyme, Conn.) and Jijon-Nemalceff teamed up to finish sixth in the 400-yard medley relay – the program's best finish in more than four years in the event – in a time of 4:11.06. It marked the third straight championship in which the 400 MR school record has been set.
Ten-time reigning champion Springfield College has taken the early lead after one day collecting two victories on their way to 276.5 points. They hold a slight advantage over MIT (273.5), which also earned a pair of wins.
Springfield got things going with a first place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The foursome of Kellie Pennington, Jaclyn Van Waalwijk, Caroline Kosciusko and Kaitlin Reilly joined forces to post a NEWMAC Championship record time of 1:35.10.
They finished more than a second ahead of MIT's Christy Rogers, Katelyn Rossick, Nicole Wang and Elina Hu, who grabbed second place with a time of 1:36.76. Both squads provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III National Championships.
Coast Guard's Kimberly Shadwick repeated as champion in the 500-yard freestyle with her time of 5:00.71. She was followed by Wellesley's Keelin Nave, who touched the wall in 5:04.88. Both swimmers met the NCAA "B" standard with their times.
MIT's Anna Kokensparger also became a repeat champion with her time of 2:04.99 in the 200-yard individual medley. Rossick collected second place in the race with a time of 2:08.73. The teammates each provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with their performances.
The top performance of the day came from Pennington in the 50-yard freestyle. After shattering the NEWMAC Open and Championship records with her time of 23.18 in the preliminaries, she clocked a 23.60 in the finals to clinch her second victory of the night. The rookie also met the NCAA "A" standard with her showing in the preliminaries. Wheaton's Dania Piscetta hit the NCAA "B" cut with her second place time of 24.07.
MIT closed out the opening day with a convincing win in the 400-yard medley relay. The quartet of Rogers, Morganne Klein, Kokensparger and Hu joined forces to post a NEWMAC Championship record time of 3:52.60. They also provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championship in the event. Wheaton (3:59.52) and Coast Guard (4:00.64) rounded out the top three.
The action continues on Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m.
