WORCESTER, Mass. — Junior Garin Stone (Barrington, R.I.) finished second in the 500-yard freestyle to lead the Wheaton College (Mass.) women's swimming & diving team on Day Two of the New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championship hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute at the WPI Sports & Recreation Center in Worcester, Mass.
The Lyons are currently in third place with 266 points, just behind second-place Springfield College's tally of 278 points. Defending champion Massachusetts Institute of Technology tops the field with 615 points, while United States Coast Guard Academy is nipping at Wheaton's heels with 265 points.
Stone bettered her personal best in the 500-yard freestyle in both the morning preliminaries and again in the evening finals to shatter her previous mark coming into the meet by more than 15 seconds. She touched the wall with a time of 4:57.77. Classmate Talia Dalton (Andover, Minn.) placed seventh in the race with a time of 5:09.43, while Vivian Van Holland (Excelsior, Minn.) was right behind to claim the eighth spot with a time of 5:10.25.
The Lyons continued to make waves in the relay events, adding a second-place effort in the 400-yard medley and a third-place showing in the night's opening 200-yard freestyle to give them three top-three finishes in two nights at the title meet.
Senior Reese Hartmann (Grand Rapids, Mich.) swam the opening backstroke of the 400-yard medley relay, before giving way to junior Emma Claire Lambert-Shemo (Cleveland, Ohio) in the breaststroke. Senior Alexa DiCenso (Methuen, Mass.) swam the butterfly leg before classmate Katie Walz (Bellevue, Wash.) capped the race in the freestyle anchor to combine on a time of 3:53.04 in the day's final event for the women.
Stone set the pace in the 200-yard freestyle relay, followed by Hartmann and sophomore Anna St. Jean (Alexandria, Va.). Walz capped the race with the final 50 yards to touch the wall at 1:36.12 to give Wheaton third place.
Senior Morgen Coughlin-Doyle (Topsham, Maine) led the Lyons in the diving with a score of 405.50 points to place eighth on the one-meter board.
Walz and Hartmann scored points in the 50-yard freestyle for Wheaton. Walz clocked in at 24.36 to finish ninth, while Hartmann hit the wall at 24.46 to place 13th.
Sophomore Kaleigh Morton (Milford, Conn.) led the Lyons in the 200-yard individual medley, breaking her personal-mark in the event twice during the day, including a time of 2:11.76 to place 14th in the finals and best her previous time by 2.51 seconds coming into the day. DiCenso finished 16th in the race with a time of 2:13.06 and Lambert-Shemo was 20th with a time of 2:14.61.
Wheaton returns tomorrow for Day Three's 10:00 a.m. prelims in Worcester, Mass.
