Women’s swim and dive captures 6th consecutive NEWMAC title
The MIT women’s swimming and diving team captured its sixth straight New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship over the weekend.
For her excellent performance at the Conference Championship, Addie Chambers ’19 was named NEWMAC Women’s Swimmer of the Year.
The Engineers totaled 1,259.5 points over the four-day Championship competition. Behind MIT was Springfield College (919 points), Wellesley College (744.5), the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (608), Wheaton College (588.5), WPI (574.5), Smith College (341), Clark University (315), Mount Holyoke College (296), and Babson College (165).
Chambers began the final day of the competition by smashing the MIT, NEWMAC, and meet record with a time of 16:55.88 in the 1650-freestyle. The old record was set in 2012 by Emmie Ryan ’15 who swam a 16:59.05 (NEWMAC) and 17:06.26 (meet). Her performance earned NEWMAC First Team All-Conference honors and an NCAA “B” cut.
In the the 200-backstroke, Veronika Jedryka ’17 bested the MIT, NEWMAC, and meet record with a time of 1:58.97. Previously the junior held the school and MIT records but busted it by 0.20 seconds. Clare Wieland ’19 and Catherine Wu ’19 joined Jedryka in the top five as Wieland claimed third (2:07.68) and Wu finished fifth (2:08.44).
The 400-freestyle relay comprised Jedryka, Margaret Guo ’16, Jessica Chen ’18, and Amanda Wu ’18, and broke the meet record with a final time of 3:25.89. The previous mark was 3:26.51.
Chen claimed NEWMAC Second Team All-Conference accolades in the 200-breaststroke with a time of 2:19.66.
MIT had three Engineers on the podium in the 100-freestyle: Amanda Wu in second in 51.83, Guo in sixth in 53.01, and Katherine Yu ’16 who tied for ninth with a time of 53.62. Wu earned NEWMAC Second Team All-Conference honors and an NCAA “B” cut.
On the one-meter diving board, Morgan Matranga ’18 finished second with a final score of 463.05 and Dolly Payne ’18 took seventh with a point total of 432.80. Both Matranga’s and Payne’s scores surpass the 410-point NCAA Division III Diving standard.
The MIT divers will return to action next weekend at the NCAA Northeast-North Diving Regional, which is scheduled for Friday, February 26 and Saturday, February 27 at Wellesley College.