MIDDLEBURY, VT (February 16, 2024) - Sophomore
Quinci Wheeler won the 50 breaststroke in record time and Tufts' 400 medley relay broke two school records to highlight the Jumbo women's swimming & diving team's Friday at the NESCAC Championship meet.
Tufts sits second out of the 11 teams at the meet with 705 points, behind Williams College who leads with an 821 score. Host Middlebury College is in third place with a 431 score.
Wheeler started the day by breaking the school, conference, championship meet and pool records for the 50 breaststroke with her 28.51 mark in the morning preliminaries. In the finals at night, she lowered the record time to 28.47 seconds to win the conference title.
In the last swimming event of the night, Tufts' 400 medley relay of first-year
Elena Harrison, Wheeler, sophomore
Jade Foltenyi and senior
Jillian Cudney combined for a 3:43.87 time that was nearly three seconds faster than the previous 3:46.45 school record from 2022. Harrison's 55.81 lead-off leg also broke the 100 backstroke school record. The Jumbos' overall time placed second at the meet.
Tufts was also the runner-up in the 200 freestyle relay tonight, with Cudney, junior
Emma Claus, first-year
Sydney Stasz and sophomore
Isa Chambers posting a 1:33.76 time. Chambers was a fast 23.13 in the anchor leg.
Harrison also swam a fast 25.93 in the 50 backstroke final that was just 0.06 off the school record and scored third in the event.
Tufts had five swimmers in the top 10 of the 50 breaststroke. Behind Wheeler in first, first-year
Mia Solomon was fifth (29.35), Stasz was seventh (29.70), junior
Abby Miller was ninth (30.15) and sophomore
Avery Newcomer took 10th (30.18).
Foltenyi was fourth in the 50 butterfly (25.28), ahead of Cudney in seventh (25.62) and junior
Lara Wujciak in 10th (25.82). For the 50 freestyle, Cudney led Tufts in third overall with a time of 23.41 seconds and was followed by Chambers in sixth at 23.78 seconds and sophomore
Katharine Skelly in 10th at 24.43 seconds.
Sophomore
Madeleine Dunn's fourth in the 500 freestyle (4:55.92) and Stasz's fifth in the 200 individual medley (2:06.73) were also key scores for the Jumbos. Senior
Sahar Mumtaz added a 5:02.21 for 10th in the 500 free.
In one-meter diving, sophomore
Malia Leung placed sixth with a 397.95 score in the finals (she scored 418.50 in the trials). First-year
Arya Gupta scored 371.70 for eighth place in the final.
The Jumbos earned a half-dozen NCAA "B" marks today with Dunn in the 500 free, the 200 free relay, Cudney in the 50 free, Leung in one-meter diving and two 400 medley relays. Outside of the second-place 400 medley foursome, senior
Elise Fong, Solomon, Wujciak and Chambers also posted a B time with a 3:49.01 finish.
Saturday's action begins with preliminaries at 10 AM, then three-meter diving trials at 2 PM, and then the finals beginning at 5:45 PM.
--JUMBOS--
