WORCESTER -- A select number of WPI swimming and diving student-athletes kicked off their championships season with some stellar performances at the first day of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference championships. Hosted at WPI, the GNAC Championships runs three full days and serves as the last meet of the season for a select group of student-athletes. 

The morning started with a strong showing in the women's 200 medley relay. The team of Maria Korneva (Shrewsbury, MA) Alia Ureta (Hackensack, NJ), Alessandra Giovenco (Alexandria, VA) and Sophie Robinson (Westboro, MA) posted the fastest time this morning as the quartet hit the wall in 1:57.46.5.

While the Engineers men's team were the only entrants, both 200 medley relay squads had great swims. The team of Luke Sperling (Downingtown, PA), Nikita Ostapenko (Acton, MA), Patrick Tirch (Poughkeepsie, NY) and Nick Braun (Portland, OR) beat the squad of Kacey Tarbrake (Beltsville, MD), Jack Werb (Raynham, MA), Devin Mihaichuk (Noblesville, IN) and Aidan Domanico (New Windsor, NY) 1:42.00 to 1:49.65  In the women's and men's 400 IM. Lada DiMascolo (Puyallup, WA) and Dan Cory (Reading, MA) hit the wall in 4:46.14 and 4:16.71, respectively. For Cory, the time stands as a new season best by 10 seconds and for DiMascolo, the time clocks in as their third best.

Cory, a sophomore, also had a strong showing in the 200 backstroke, where his 2:04.81 was the third fastest time of the morning and a new personal best by over 2 seconds. Dropping 1.81 seconds from his former best was fellow sophomore, Sperling, whose result of 2:03.09 was the second fastest swim in the morning.

Sperling also took on the 50 fly, where his 26.22, was also a new PB by over a second. Domanico, also sliced a second off his PB as the first-year posted the fastest time of the morning, with his new best of 23.90.

Keeping up the momentum with new PBs was Werb. After a strong 30.29 on the breaststroke leg of the medley relay, the sophomore returned to the pool in the 100 breastroke, where he broke 1:06.00 for the first time, as he stopped the clock in 1:05.99. While not PBs, teammates Eli Budde (Sykesville, MD) and Ostapenko hit new season's best of 1:00.50 and 1:00.55.

While swimming exhibition, WPI posted the top three fastest times in the Women's 1000 freestyle as senior Kristina MacLeod (Jackson, WY), first-year Emmy Roberts (Monson, MA) and senior Anna Callaghan (Yorktown Heights, NY) all posted personal best times as the trio went 12:02.51, 12:27.10 and 12:30.67.  

Action for the Crimson and Gray Saturday begins at 10am.