Bristol, RI --- The WPI women's swimming and diving team headed down to Roger Williams on Friday for the first of the two-day Menck Invitational.  Named after Robert Menck, a stalwart of the swimming community, who had officiated nearly all of WPI's home contests as well as numerous collegiate and USA swimming championships, including the 2021 US Olympic Trials, the Invite is an away-home contest that will return to action tomorrow in Worcester. 
 
The Engineers will dive back into the water a little after 11:00am as the WPI Swim and Dive team will take the time to recognize the accomplishments and achievements of its four seniors.
 
The first day of action started with the Roger Williams program recognizing their seniors, Avery Benigi, Fionna Cashman, Victoria Fahey, and Brooke Irons. The Hawks, buoyed by that celebration, won the first event, and just one of the two finals on the evening as they captured the 400 Free relay in a time of 3:41.82. WPI took second and third with the A Relay team of Audrey Cook (Wakefield, MA), Sarah Kang (Richmond, VA), Katrina Waite (Falmouth, ME) and Mallory LaPointe (St. John's, FL) touching in 3:44.04. 
 
While the meet is not scored, swimmers still had much on the line as each individual event contested this evening served as prelim for tomorrow's final. First year Jasmine Lam (Dracut, MA) earned herself the top seed in tomorrow 100 breaststroke final as took the event in a time of 1:08.23, which was not only the lone swim under 1:10, but also a season best.
 
Roger Williams's senior Avery Benigi captured the 100 free but she will have both LaPointe and Sophie Robinson (Westboro, MA) hot on heels as the pair of underclassmen touched 2nd and 3rd respectively in time of 55.65 and 56.69.
 
LaPointe has set herself up for a busy day tomorrow as in addition to her 2nd place finish in the 100 free, she posted the top times in the 500 free and 100 fly, stopping the clock in the 500 at 5:18.47, a team leading time. Her 1:01.05 in the 100 fly also topped the field but was little of shy of her season best ant the schools fastest time of 57.25 set by Kang earlier in the season.
 
LaPointe would have added another first place in the 100 IM has Kang not used a strong first 50 to take the win 1:03.00 to 1:03.10. 
 
Joining the aforementioned trio as the top seed tomorrow as another pair of underclassman as Maria Korneva (Boylston, MA) and Amber Jacobs (Cedar Falls, IA) topped the field in the 100 back (1:04.68) and 200 free (2:04.34), respectively. 
 
The Engineers ended the session with a victory in the 400 Medley Relay as the team of Korneva, Cook, Kang and LaPointe stopped the clock at 4:08.80. 

Results