WORCESTER -- The WPI Engineers kept up the momentum on day two of the GNAC Championships, as the team swam the fastest prelims times on multiple occasions and individually broke several personal bests. 
 
Like yesterday, the WPI Women kicked things off by posting the fastest time in the morning's 200 free relay. The squad of Alessandra Giovenco (Alexandria, VA), Rachel Tsang (Acton, MA) Maria Korneva (Shrewsbury, MA) and Sophie Robinson (Westborough, MA) swam a swift 1:46.87 to take the heat win, finishing over 15 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. 
 
The men's relay was a closer affair as WPI duked it out against themselves as the relay of Dan Cory (Reading, MA) Patrick Tirch (Poughkeepsie, NY), Luke Sperling (Downingtown, PA) and Nicholas Braun (Portland, OR) took down the team of Devin Mihaichuk (Noblesville, IL), Joey Hemmerle (Natick, MA), Nikita Ostapenko (Acton, MA) and Aidan Domanico (New Windsor, NY) 1:31.96 to 1:32.95, despite Ostapenko's 21.95 split. 
 
While he may have been second in the relay, first-year Domanico took the win in the 100 fly. Out in 24.25, he closed in 28.37 to post a time of 52.62, which not only was the fastest time from prelims, but also a new lifetime best by nearly three quarters of a second. 
 
The 500 free saw multiple new personal bests as first year Emmy Roberts (Monson, MA) better her PB by .48 and posted a new time of 5:58.99. On the men's side, Sperling, dropped under 5:10 for the first time in his life as the sophomore went from 5:13.39 to 5:07.23, just one day removed from also hitting a new PB in the 200 back.
 
While having split under 24 seconds multiple times on relays, Sperling appears to have cracked the barrier from a flat start for the first time in the 50 free as he hit the wall in 23.78. Sperling was just a few spots ahead of fellow sophomore Jack Werb (Raynham, MA), who in addition to cracking the 25.0 barrier for the first time, hitting a new PB of 24.81.
 
Werb was not content to just PB in the 50 freestyle, as both his 100 fly (1:00.24) and his 200 Breaststroke (2:26.04) now stand as new targets.  Classmate, Cory also had a strong day. After hitting a new PB yesterday in the 200 back, the sophomore returned to the pool today posting season bests in the 500 free (4:56.56) and in the 200 breast (2:21.03),
 
Action today was not just confined to the lane lines as both the men and women's 1m diving was contested. On the men's side WPI's Val Corrente (East Setauket, NY) and Tom Fitzgerald (East Longmeadow, MA) had a duel as the senior and first year were separated by just 10.05 points after 11 dives, with the younger of the two, Fitzgerald scoring the better of the pair as he scored 391.05 to Corrente's 381.00. On the women's side, Katrina Yurista (Laramie, WY) scored an impressive 424.50 points, 32 points ahead of her nearest competitor. The junior's score, if WPI had been in the conference would now stand as a new record, as she surpassed the old mark by 4 points. 
 
The Engineers return to the pool tomorrow with multiple swimming events and the 3m diving events. 

Swimming Results

Diving Results