Worcester, MA --- WPI Swimming and Diving won its first event in program history at the NEWMAC Championship meet, as the men's 800 freestyle relay team of Andrew Kelleher (Poughquag, NY), Andrew Bauer (Cumberland, RI), Nathan Hughes (Arlington, VA) and Alex Powers (Glocester, RI) came in at a school record time of 6:48.96.

The NCAA-B cut qualifying time highlighted day one of the four-day championship hosted by the Engineers in the Sports and Recreation Center. 

Bauer had the group's fastest split (1:40.43), while Hughes took the Engineers from third to first before turning it over to Powers for the anchor leg, as WPI overtook second-place MIT (6:49.29) and Wheaton (6:50.58), which took third. 

WPI's B relay team also picked up 30 points, as a team of Nick Houghton (Berkley, MA), Jonathan Decelle (Rumson, NJ), Eric Spazzarini (Enfield, CT) and Adam McNally (Leominster, MA) finished second in its heat in 7:04.20. 

Diver Matt Suarez (Needham, MA) qualified for the 3-meter diving final and finished in seventh place, totaling 362.25 points. 

On the women's side, the Engineers' 800 free relay team finished four with a time of 7:52.63 in a blistering final that saw the top two teams, Springfield and MIT, smash the previous meet record. The women's 800 free relay squad was made up of Emily Martin (Penfield, NY), Sonja Kent (West Boylston, MA), Eva Childers (Henniker, NH) and Amanda Konieczny (West Springfield, MA). 

The women's 800 free relay B squad of Tori Claverie (Derry, NH), Kelin Song (Providence, RI), Heather Stratica (Wappingers, NY) and Taylor Brisnero (Mansfield, MA) was fourth in its heat (8:17.79) and picked up 18 points. 

The WPI men are ranked third of seven teams with 100 points after two events, while the women's team is fourth (60 points) out of 10 teams after one event.

Trials resume at 10am tomorrow morning while the finals get underway at 6pm.

Release by Carl Setterlund - WPI Athletics Intern - Emerson '14

Photo Credit - Mark Therrien