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| Sasha Fong broke her own record in the 50 butterfly today |
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The Tufts University women's swimming & diving team broke six school records and posted five NCAA B cuts on the second day of the NESCAC Championship meet at Wesleyan University on Friday.
Head coach Adam Hoyt's Jumbos maintained second place out of the 11 teams at the meet with a two-day total of 641 points. Williams College leads the meet with a 781 score and Amherst College is third at 590.
Tufts sophomore Sasha Fong lowered her own school record in the 50 butterfly with a 24.92 time in the preliminaries today. She placed third in the final with a 24.98 mark.
In the 500 freestyle, sophomore Amy Socha twice broke the team's 10-year old record of 5:01.21 by Megan Kono from 2009. Socha timed 5:00.65 in the prelims and then 4:58.64 in the final for fourth place. The finish is an NCAA B cut for Socha.
Three Jumbos were within the top eight in the 50 backstroke led by freshman Jeanette Khowong with a school-record 26.34 mark. Khowong had erased the previous Tufts record of 26.86 set by teammate Caroline McCormick in 2016 when she touched in 26.48 seconds in the preliminaries. She then bettered the mark in today's final where she was fourth. The Jumbos had freshman Emma Donchi seventh in the 50 back (26.75) and classmate Anne Younger eighth (27.35).
Junior Grace Goetcheus broke her own record in the 200 individual medley Friday with a 2:05.95 time, eclipsing her old 2:06.75 standard. Today's time is an NCAA B cut, which was also earned by Tufts sophomore Abby Claus in a 2:06.17 time in the event. Goetcheus was third and Claus was fourth at the meet.
The Jumbo 400 medley relay of Donchi, sophomore Lily Kurtz, Socha and freshman Mary Hufziger teamed up for a 3:48.90 time that smashed the old Tufts record. Last year's 3:52.00 time at NESCAC's had been the record. Donchi's 57.37 time in the 100 backstroke to lead off today's 400 medley relay was a school record, lowering the 57.43 time of Goetcheus in 2017. Tufts was third in today's 400 medley relay.
Sophomore Amber Chong scored 400.95 points in the one-meter diving event contested today. That placed fourth at the meet and was an NCAA B mark.
The Jumbos also had a fourth-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay with Younger, junior Brooke Bernstein, Fong and freshman Hannah Spencer putting together a 1:36.07 time. Kurtz was fifth in the 50 breaststroke (29.91) while junior Kate Brown was seventh in the event (29.98). Bernstein added an eighth-place in the 50 freestyle finishing in 24.60 seconds. The 24.12 posted by freshman Hannah Spencer to win the 50 freestyle consolation final (9th overall) is the second-fastest time in Tufts history.
Through two days at the meet, Tufts has established eight new school records and nothced seven NCAA B marks.
Action at the NESCAC meet continues tomorrow with the trials starting at 10 a.m.
