NORTON, Mass. – Junior Katie Walz (Bellevue, Wash.) won all three individual events that she entered and helped the Wheaton College (Mass.) 200-yard freestyle relay team to a win in a 168-126 victory over visiting Bentley University this afternoon in the season opener for both teams at Balfour Natatorium on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.
The Lyons improve to 1-0 on the season and have won 18 straight dual meets with their last defeat dating back to November 20, 2021. The Falcons dip to 0-1.
Wheaton won nine events, including both relays and turned in one 1-2-3 event sweep.
Walz placed first in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events with respective times of 24.52 and 54.47 to go with a top finish in the 100-yard butterfly after posting a mark of 59.96. Classmate Reese Hartmann (Grand Rapids, Mich.) won both of her individual events and helped the Lyons take both relays.
Hartmann led off the 200-yard medley relay for Wheaton with the backstroke, before senior Meghan Dickinson (North Kingstown, R.I.) swam the breaststroke and junior Alexa DiCenso (Methuen, Mass.) swam her 50 yards in the butterfly before sophomore Garin Stone (Barrington, R.I.) turned in the freestyle anchor to combine for a winning time of 1:49.72. Hartmann won both backstroke events with a time of 1:00.24 in the 100 and 2:12.21 in the 200 for the Lyons. Wheaton capped the meet by winning the 200-yard freestyle relay behind senior Amelia Butler (New York, N.Y.), Stone, Hartmann and Walz for a cumulative mark of 1:40.24.
Dickinson also added an individual win for the Lyons with the fastest time in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:07.53, while junior Morgen Coughlin-Doyle (Topsham, Maine) paced the Wheaton diving team with a first-place showing in the three-meter event after scoring 259.42 points to win by just over eight points. Coughlin-Doyle also finished second on the one-meter board with a tally of 250.95 points and Dickinson was the runner-up in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:31.95. Stone turned in a pair of second-place efforts for the Lyons in the 200-yard backstroke to contribute to a top-three sweep for the home team and the 200-yard freestyle.
Senior Emma Hapkiewicz (South Windsor, Conn.) led Bentley with a trio of first-place finishes. She dominated the distance events, winning the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:58.91 to outpace the field by more than 22 seconds and the 500-yard freestyle with a mark of 5:25.03. She showed some speed in the 200-yard freestyle as well with a winning clip of 2:00.37.
Junior Hilla Almog (Wayland, Mass.) split the diving titles with Coughlin-Doyle, winning the one-meter board for the Falcons with a score of 274.80 and finishing second on the three-meter board with a count of 251.17. Sophomore Caroline Ubert (Columbus, Ohio) and first year Skyla Lang (Roseville, Calif.) picked up wins for the visitors. Ubert finished first in the 200-yard butterfly with a mark of 2:17:24 and Lang out-touched the field in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:12.34.
Wheaton returns to the pool on Friday, October 27 when it travels to Bristol, R.I. to compete against Roger Williams University at 5:00 p.m., while Bentley hosts College of Saint Rose on October 29 at 2:00 p.m.
