WORCESTER Mass. – The Wheaton College (Mass.) women's swimming & diving team was defeated by host Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 153-135, this evening at the WPI Sports & Recreation Center in Worcester, Mass.
The Lyons' four-meet win streak comes to an end as they dip to 7-2 on the season, while the Engineers improve to 6-9.
Wheaton won nine of 16 events, but WPI's depth was too much for the visitors to overcome.
Senior diver Morgen Coughlin-Doyle (Topsham, Maine) earned a pair of first place efforts for Wheaton, scoring 287.78 points to win on the one-meter board and erase her former school mark in the event, while placing first on the three-meter board with a tally of 252.75 points.
Junior Garin Stone (Barrington, R.I.) scored a meet-high 22 points, including a pair of first place finishes to go with a runner-up swim for the Lyons. She won a pair of freestyle races, touching the wall first in the 100-yards with a mark of 54.23 to go with a victory in the 200-yard race behind a time of 1:56.92. Stone also placed second in the 200-yard individual medley.
Juniors Talia Dalton (Andover, Minn.) and Vivian Van Holland (Excelsior, Minn.) and senior Reese Hartmann (Grand Rapids, Mich.) all collected 13 points with a first and second-place finish each for the night. Dalton and Van Holland combined to own the distance events for the Lyons. Dalton won the 1000-yard freestyle in 11:02.65 with Van Holland close behind at 11:06.97, before the pair switched spots with Van Holland topping the field in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:25.28 and Dalton touching just 2.3 tenths of a second later for second place in the race. Hartmann won the 100-yard backstroke with a mark of 59.26 to help Wheaton pull even with the Engineers at 37-37 after four events. She also finished second in the 200-yard backstroke later in the evening.
Senior Katie Walz (Bellevue, Wash.) also boasted a win for the Lyons, taking the 50-yard freestyle with a 24.85 clip and also added a third-place showing in the 100-yard butterfly.
Wheaton closed the night with a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay behind Walz, Hartmann, sophomore Anna St. Jean (Alexandria, Va.) and junior Emma Claire Lambert-Shemo's (Cleveland, Ohio) time of 3:42.86.
First year Sarah Kang (Richmond, Va.) tied Stone with 22 points on the night after winning both the 200-yard backstroke (2:08.16) and the 100-yard butterfly (59.71) for WPI. In addition, she finished second in the 100-yard backstroke.
First year Milena Whitney (Bedford, N.H.) claimed first in both breaststroke events with a time of 1:08.97 in the 100-yard race and the top mark in the 200-yard event at 2:34.33. First year Veronica Finucane-Tuccio (Excelsior, Minn.) scored in three different events for the Engineers, including a first-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:14.07. She also placed second in the 100-yard butterfly and third in the 100-yard freestyle to tally 16 points. Senior Lada DiMascolo (Puyallup, Wash.) swam to first place in the 200-yard individual medley with a mark of 2:14.92 and added a pair of fourth places in the 1000 and 500-yard freestyle events.
WPI opened the night with a win in the 200-yard medley relay after posting a time of 1:49.26. Senior Leah Kolb (Canton, Mich.) opened with the backstroke, followed by Whitney's breaststroke, Kang's butterfly and senior Kristina MacLeod (Jackson Hole, Wyo.) in the anchor freestyle.
The Lyons return to the pool on Saturday, January 25 when they travel to Hartford, Conn. to take on Trinity College at 1:00 p.m., while the Engineers head to Bristol, R.I. for Roger Williams University's Menck Invitational at 4:00 p.m. on January 24.
