NCAA Qualifying Performances Mark Second Day at MIT for Women's Swimming & Diving

CAMBRIDGE, MA (December 7, 2024) - The Tufts University women's swimming & diving team submitted national-qualifying performances in eight of the nine events it competed in on Saturday at the MIT Winter Invite.

Through two days at the meet, Tufts has scored 815.5 team points and is in second place out of five teams. The Jumbos trail only host MIT, who has a 988.5 score.

In the 200 free relay today, Tufts' top time of 1:34.36 was completed in the morning race by Quinci Wheeler, Emma Claus, Isa Chambers and Jillian Cudney. The mark was below the NCAA B cut of 1:35.10. In Saturday night's finals, the order of Chambers, Claus, Wheeler and Cudney was third at the meet with a 1:34.37 time.

Tufts' Lara Wujciak was the runner-up in the 200 butterfly tonight with her 2:03.70 NCAA B cut time (2:05.01). Elena Harrison had won the morning session with a career-best 2:03.30 time that was also a B cut. She went 2:03.94 for third place in the final.

Next in the 200 freestyle, the top Jumbo performance came from Madeleine Dunn with a 1:52.20 that was fourth in the event and just missed the NCAA B mark. The time was her career-best in the event.

Quinci Wheeler's 1:03.43 was second in the 100 breaststroke tonight, and better than the NCAA B cut of 1:04.25. Tufts also scored third in the event with Mia Solomon's 1:03.75 B time.

Harrison, Gaurika Singh and Noa Chambers all hit the NCAA B mark (56.76) in the 100 backstroke. Chambers had the best Jumbo time and personal best of 56.19 in the final for third place. Singh's 56.48 (career-best) was fifth in the final. Harrison's B time came in the morning session (56.03) and she was sixth in the final (56.84).

Dunn also led the Jumbos in the 400 individual medley. Her 4:25.21 PR in the morning was an NCAA B cut (4:29.40), while she had a 4:26.20 in tonight's final for second place in the event.

Cudney's 23.49 was third in the 50 freestyle final on Saturday night. It was just under the NCAA B qualifier of 23.57 seconds.

In the night's final event, Harrison, Wheeler, Wujciak and Cudney timed 3:48.30 for second-place in the 400 medley relay and an NCAA B cut (3:50.46). Tufts also had the third-place foursome of Singh, Solomon, Angel Smyrniou and Isa Chambers with a 3:49.61 finish that was also a B cut.

In the first 11-dive program of the season, three Jumbo divers who competed in the three-meter event this afternoon made the NCAA qualifying mark (410). Arya Gupta was seventh in the event (441.80), Luci Karp placed ninth (427.20) and Nika Renshaw finished 13th (417.70).

Day three of the MIT Winter Invite will have morning and evening sessions again tomorrow with start times of 10 AM and 6 PM, respectively.