WORCESTER, Mass. — The Wheaton College (Mass.) women's swimming & diving team currently sits in second place following the opening night of the four-day New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference Championship meet hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute at the WPI Sports & Recreation Center in Worcester, Mass.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology tops the field with 70 points, while the Lyons tally of 60 points slots them as the current runner-up. United States Coast Guard Academy's total of 56 points is good for third place.

Wheaton finished second in the 800-yard freestyle relay – the evening's only event – with a time of 7:39.28. Junior Garin Stone (Barrington, R.I.) put together the fastest opening 200 yards of any swimmer in the race to lead off for the Lyons at 1:50.58, before giving way to classmate Talia Dalton (Andover, Minn.). Sophomore Anna St. Jean (Alexandria, Va.) swam the third leg for Wheaton, prior to junior Emma Claire Lambert-Shemo (Cleveland, Ohio), who closed out the final 200 yards with the anchor leg.

MIT won the event behind graduate student Alexandra Turvey (Vancouver, B.C.), sophomore Sydney Smith (Atlanta, Ga.), senior Kate Augustyn (Eau Claire, Wis.) and sophomore Ella Roberson (Midland, Mich.), who produced a mark of 7:22.27.

The Lyons return to the pool tomorrow morning for the 10:00 a.m. preliminaries in Worcester, Mass.