WORCESTER -- Day one of the NEWMAC Championships saw a school record-tying performance from the WPI women's swimming and diving team while the men tallied top-five relay finish and a pair of point-getters in the 1-meter dive.
The women's squad started things off on the night with a third place, 7:40.70 performance in the 800 Free Relay. The foursome of Andrea Wu (Redmond, WA), Molly Sykes (Falmouth, MA), Lada DiMascolo (Puyallup, WA) and Morgan Foltz (North Easton, MA) combined for the school record-tying time to begin the meet in exciting fashion.
The time tied the school record, also set at the NEWMAC Championships back in 2017 by Jenny Day, Eva Childers, Emily Matsco and Emily Martin as the relay squad shaved 13.67 seconds off of their season best for the podium finish.
In the B final Kristina Macleod (Jackson Hole, WY), Elinor Ross (Brandon, VT), Kaitlyn Grove (Cheshire, CT) and Anna Callaghan (Yorktown Heights, NY) placed fifth in a time of 8:05.04.
The men's squad came away with a fifth-place performance in the same event as Kyle Staubi (Red Hook, NY), Matt Crane (Groton, MA), Christopher Smith (Northbridge, MA), and John Puksta (Nashua, NH) erased 18.53 seconds off of their season best time to touch the wall in 6:50.43 to round out the top-5. The foursome of Aaron Swann (Venice, FL), Nikita Zuev (Wallingford, CT), Austin Aguirre (Santa Maria, CA) and Evan Buckley (Burnt Hills, NY) claimed second place in the B final, touching the wall in a time of 7:00.06.
The men's 1-meter dive also took place on the first day of competition as Alex Masiero (Richmond, MA) and Val Corrente (East Setauket, NY) went 4-5 in the event improving upon their preliminary scores to net massive personal best results.
Masiero finished with a score of 367.10, besting his previous career best, set at the Gompei Invitational earlier this season, by over 40 points. Corrente did the same with a 334.35 point finish, improving upon his personal best by 15 points.
For the women, the MIT leads after posting a total of 70 points, followed by Wheaton with 60 and both WPI and Springfield tied for third with 52 points. Wellesley and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy are fifth with 48 points, along with Babson in seventh at 40 and Mount Holyoke in eighth with 34. Clark and Smith are tied for ninth with 30 points.
Springfield sits atop the men's standings with 108 points with MIT in second with 94. WPI is third with 91 points, followed by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in fourth with 74 and Wheaton in fifth with 65. Rounding out the standings are Babson in sixth with 48 points and Clark in seventh with 32.
The team is back in action on day two of the NEWMAC Championships tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 17. The swim prelims start at 10am while diving prelims are set for 1:15pm. The day two finals will begin at 6pm and feature the 200 Free Relay, 500 Free, 200 IM, 50 Free, women's 3-meter dive and close out with the 400 Medley Relay.
