WELLESLEY, Mass. – The Wellesley College women's swimming & diving team won two of the final three events, including a 1-2-3 sweep, to erase an eight-point deficit and defeat visiting Wheaton College (Mass.), 149.5-147.5, this afternoon at Chandler Pool in Wellesley, Mass.
The Lyons slip to 2-1 on the season and drop their first dual meet since November 20, 2021 to end a streak of 19 straight victories. The Blue improve to 1-0 in their season opener.
Sophomore Vivian Van Holland (Exelsior, Minn.) and junior Katie Walz (Bellevue, Wash.) each won a pair of events to lead Wheaton. The teams split all 16 events with eight wins apiece and earned a relay win each and a win each in the diving. To punctuate even more how close the competition was, there were six lead changes in the meet with Wellesley leading by as many as 16 and the Lyons owning their biggest margin at eight.
Walz won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 58.48 for her second triumph of the afternoon, while junior Alexa DiCenso (Methuen, Mass.) (fourth) and first year Kaleigh Morton (Milford, Conn.) (fifth) also collected points to give Wheaton a 125.5-117.5 lead after 13 events.
First year Jaya Magavi (West Hartford, Conn.) earned her first collegiate victory on the three-meter board for the Blue with a score of 235.00 to outpoint Lyon junior Morgen Coughlin-Doyle's (Topsham, Maine) score of 228.30. Sophomore Elizabeth Marsden (Vienna, Va.) took third in the event for Wellesley and senior Bella Barrett (Wakefield, Mass.) placed fourth. The Blue cut the deficit to 131.5-129.5.
Wellesley came through with a 1-2-3 sweep of the top three spots in the 200-yard individual medley to grab the maximum 16 points. Senior McKaela Glanville (Menlo Park, Calif.) was first in 2:12.71, followed by sophomore Lara Dashti (Kuwait) in 2:14.04, and sophomore Kavita Sekhon (Los Angeles, Calif.) 2:15.88, as the teammates pushed the Blue to a 145.5-134.5 advantage.
Wheaton won the final event of the day with the top time in the 400-yard freestyle relay, but also needed to take the second spot as well to win the meet. Wellesley secured the win with a runner-up showing in the race. Walz, sophomore Garin Stone (Barrington, R.I.), junior Reese Hartmann (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and senior Amelia Butler (New York, N.Y.) combined on a mark of 3:39.40. Wellesley took second thanks to sophomore Aubrey Cantrell (Palo Alto, Calif.), senior Mira Tang (Mercer Island, Wash.), first year Kim Joyce (Houston, Texas) and junior Cecilia Cai (Palo Alto, Calif.) in 3:39.59 to hold on for the 149.5-147.5 victory.
The Blue opened the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay, behind a time of 1:48.03 from the relay of sophomores Tracey Liu (Princeton, N.J.) and Sekhon, Cai and Cantrell.
Wheaton countered in the 1000 Free, using the distance event to find some distance in the score, the Lyons took the top three spots in 1000-yard freestyle, paced by a time of 11:15.88 from Van Holland. Van Holland also captured the 500-yard freestyle later in the meet with a time of 5:28.99.
Wellesley earned victories in the next four events to jump to a 63.5 to 47.5 advantage in the meet. Glanville captured the 200-yard freestyle in 2:00.75, Tang finished in 1:00:41 to win the 100-yard backstroke, Sekhon picked up a second victory with a time of 1:04.95 in the 100-yard breaststroke and Cai notched another victory by winning the 200-yard butterfly in 2:12.33.
Wheaton matched the Blue by winning the next four events to reclaim the lead. Senior Lily Watson (Waterford, Conn.) took the 50-yard freestyle in 25.28, before Coughlin-Doyle placed first on the one-meter board with a regional-qualifying mark of 283.95. Walz won the 100-yard freestyle in 53.80 and Hartmann was first in the 200-yard backstroke in 2:11.69 to give the Lyons a 93.5-92.5 edge in the meet.
The teams traded events and the lead in the next two races. Sekhon and sophomore Lara Dashti (Kuwait) finished 1-2 for Wellesley in the 200 Breaststroke. Sekhon paced the field in 2:24.01 and Dashti finished in 2:26.88 to give the home team a six-point margin at 105.5-99.5, before Van Holland touched the wall first in the 500-yard freestyle to put Wheaton back in front at 113.5-110.5.
The Lyons return to action on Saturday, November 4 when they travel to Bridgewater, Mass. to take on Bridgewater State University at 2:00 p.m., while the Blue host Simmons University and Merrimack College on the same day at 11:00 a.m.
