WATERVILLE, Maine - The Tufts University women's swimming & diving team opened the 2022 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championships with a tremendous performance by the 800 freestyle relay on Thursday night.
The Jumbos' foursome of Katelin Isakoff, Abby Claus, Claire Brennan and Mary Hufziger (pictured) won the event with a 7:18.26 time that was both a meet record and school record. They were two-and-a-half seconds faster than the previous meet record of 7:20.76 set by Williams College in 2020. Tonight's mark was also more than eight seconds better than the 7:26.71 former Tufts record from 2020.
Entering the race, the Jumbos were seeded first with a 7:27.76 time from the MIT Invitational, which had been the #2 time all-time at Tufts (now #3). Their time tonight won the race by more than six seconds, as runner-up Williams College touched in 7:24.38. Tufts' time was more than 20 seconds under the 7:39.30 NCAA B cut for the event.
The Jumbos' second foursome in the 800 free relay tonight placed 13th in the race with a 7:30.13 time, which is an NCAA B cut. The foursome was Jillian Cudney, Cierra McCarty, Sahar Mumtaz and Chloe Deveney. Their time is fifth all-time at the school.
Tufts scored 86 points in the 800 free relay to lead the meet after one event. Williams College is second at 82.
Preliminaries for day two of the meet on Friday begin at 10 am.
