Women's Swimming & Diving Breaks Two More Records, Holds 2nd Place at NESCAC's

MIDDLEBURY, VT (February 17, 2024) - The Tufts University women's swimming & diving team broke two more records and remained in second place on Saturday at the 2024 NESCAC Championships hosted by Middlebury College.

Sophomore Quinci Wheeler set new Tufts 100 breaststroke records twice today, first a 1:02.93 in the preliminaries, then a 1:02.58 mark in the final. She placed third in the event. She had set a new 50 breaststroke school mark yesterday.

The Tufts medley relay team of first-year Elena Harrison, Wheeler, sophomore Jade Foltenyi and senior Jillian Cudney then broke a record for the second time in as many days. Today they swam 1:41.30 in the 200 medley relay for a new school record. Second at the meet, they were right behind Williams College's winning time of 1:40.79 which broke the conference record. Tufts' same foursome had established a new school mark in the 400 medley relay yesterday.

Head coach Adam Hoyt's Jumbos finished Saturday with a 1244 team score. They trail Williams College (1479). Host Middlebury is well back in third place with 744 points.

Six Jumbos were among the top 16 in the 100 butterfly final this evening. Led by Foltenyi's 56.19 for fifth-place, Harrison followed in seventh (56.67), junior Lara Wujciak was eighth (56.89), senior Esme Blackstock placed 12th (57.54), first-year Mia Solomon took 13th (57.56) and junior Valeria Strohmeier swam 14th (57.60).

Behind Wheeler's lead in the 100 breaststroke, Solomon was sixth at 1:04.58 in the final, sophomore Avery Newcomer touched seventh with a 1:04.63 mark, first-year Sydney Stasz scored ninth at 1:05.01 and junior Abby Miller added a 14th (1:05.89).

Third-place points went to first-year Selin Tuncay in the 200 freestyle at 1:52.62. Sophomore Isa Chambers added a ninth in the 200 free (1:54.20).

Sophomore Madeleine Dunn earned fifth in the 1000 freestyle where she raced to a 10:18.40 finish. The Jumbos scored well in the event with a sixth by senior Sahar Mumtaz (10:25.81) and senior Katie Shelburne (10:27.52) placing seventh. 

Tufts had three divers reach the finals of the three-meter competition today. Sophomore Malia Leung had a 392.20 score for sixth place. In seventh place was Tufts junior Nika Renshaw with a 369.10 total. First-year Arya Gupta finished eighth (353.80).

For the 400 individual medley, junior Cierra McCarty placed seventh with her 4:32.41 mark, and junior Emma Claus added a 10th in the 400 IM where she timed 4:34.77. The Jumbos' top finisher in the 100 backstroke tonight was sophomore Maddie Hagberg with a 58.18 time that was 17th overall.

Wheeler and Solomon in the 100 breaststroke, and the second-place 200 medley relay foursome established NCAA "B" qualifying marks today.

The Championships wrap up on Sunday with preliminaries at 10 AM and finals beginning at 5:15 PM.