WORCESTER -- The WPI men's and women's swimming and diving teams celebrated senior day with 35 first place finishes at the Menck Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
The Engineers squared off against Roger Williams in a sprint-heavy competition that saw no team scoring though the Engineers finished with a combined 85 top-3 finishes at the event.
Before the start of invitational, the Engineers recognized men's seniors Ashton Lyon (Loveland, CO), Christopher Thomas (Naperville, IL), John Puksta (Nashua, NH), Julian Poindexter (Wilbraham, MA) and Kyle Staubi (Red Hook, NY) and graduate student Evan Buckley (Burnt Hills, NY) and from the women's team Sophie Chretien (Winchendon, MA) and graduate student Molly Sykes (Falmouth, MA) prior to their final home meet.
Both the women and men started the meet off with a 200 Free Relay victory with the women's squad of Morgan Foltz (North Easton, MA), Sykes, Andrea Wu (Redmond, WA) and Leah Kolb (Canton, MI) shaving 0.38 seconds off of their season best with a time of 1:38.64 while the men's squad of Aidan Greenfield (East Northport, NY), Jack Brazer (Peterborough, NH), Puksta, and Staubi touching the wall in 1:27.11, 0.31 seconds off their season best.
Jake Thomas (Wenham, MA) earned a 200 Breast victory in 2:16.22 while both Wu and Christopher Smith (Northbridge, MA) took home first, sweeping the 100 Fly with times of 57.53 and 51.58 respectively.
Taylor Walker (Townsend, MA) and Sophie Chretien (Winchendon, MA) went 1-2 in the 25 Free in times of 12.46 and 12.52 while Elinor Ross (Brandon, VT) and Austin Aguirre (Santa Maria, CA) swept the 50 Breast with times of 31.38 and 27.14. The men's team took first through seventh in the 50 Breast.
Natalie Carrington (Orange, CT) earned a first place finish in the 200 Back with a time of 2:33.09 and Ross once again raced to a first place finish, this time in the 25 Breast with a time of 14.54 pacing the 1-2-3-4 finish by the Engineers.
The women's 100 Medley Relay squads went 1-2 with Kolb, Ross, Wu and Foltz earning a 50.42 victory while both the men's and women's teams went 1-2 in the 200 IM. Foltz and Ross took the first spots for the women's team with times of 2:15.23 and 2:18.58 while Smith and Milligan took gold and silver for the men with times of 1:58.83 and 2:02.20.
Matt Crane (Groton, MA) took home the 100 Free title for the men while Kolb earned a 25 Free sprint victory in a time of 14.04 followed by Carrington in second place in 16.71. On the men's side, Engineers went 1-2-3-4 led by Staubi's 12.32 second performance.
In the 50 Fly the women's squad finished first through seventh led by Wu's time of 25.89 while the men's team was paced by a first place finish from Smith. Wu followed by capturing the 50 Free title in 24.50 and then combined with Foltz, Kolb and Sykes for the first place finish in the 100 Free Relay with a time of 45.02.
The men's duo of Nikita Zuev (Wallingford, CT) and Devin Mihaichuk (New Lenox, IL) finished 1-2 in the 200 Fly with times of 1:59.38 and 2:02.11 while Foltz and Rachel Tsang (Acton, MA) had the same fate in the 100 Back finishing in 1:01.81 and 1:02.67.
Wu took home yet another win leading the Engineers with a 1-2-3 finish in the 25 Fly with a time of 12.04. The women's and men's squads swept the 100 IM with Sykes finishing in 1:01.80 and Staubi capturing the title in 54.64.
The 50 Back saw another WPI sweep with Tsang leading the way for the women in 29.15 and Aaron Swann (Venice, FL) taking first for the men in 25.67 with the 200 Medley Relay squads also earning the title sweep.
On the diving side of things, Katrina Yurista (Laramie, WY) took first in both the 1 and 3 meter dive with scores of 221.47 and 215.17 while Val Corrente (East Setauket, NY) did the same for the men.
The event concluded with the 500 Free that saw Kylie Herbstzuber (Medfield, MA) finish first in 5:30.00 for the women and Scott Nahoum (West Windsor, NJ) earn a first place finish in 5:01.61.
The Engineers are back in the pool when they look to put everything together for the NEWMAC Championships that will run from Thursday, Feb. 16 to Sunday, Feb. 19. Roger Williams is back at it on Friday, Feb. 3 and Saturday, Feb. 4 when they host the ECAC Qualifier.
