WORCESTER, Mass.—The Babson College women's swimming & diving team set two more program records for a total of four on the weekend on the way to finishing seventh for the sixth straight year at the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championships on Sunday night inside WPI's Sports and Recreation Center. 

The Beavers accumulated 115 points on the final day of competition to finish the weekend with 416 points, the highest in program history at the NEWMAC Championships, surpassing the 343.5 scored back in 2020, and 132 points better than last year's total of 284. MIT claimed its 14th straight NEWMAC title with 1678 points, Coast Guard came in second with 750 points, while Wheaton (677), Springfield (636) and host WPI (454) rounded out the top five.

Babson set one program record in a 200-freestyle relay time trial, where the quartet of graduate student Anya Pelshaw (Sterling Heights, Mich.), senior Audrey Daniels (Santa Monica, Calif.), sophomore Sylvie Racicot (Arlington, Mass.) and first-year Julia Netishen (Exeter, N.H.) finished in a time of 1:37.96. Their performance eclipsed the previous program standard of 1:38.47 by Daniels, Madeleine Green '23, junior Sophia Sznewajs (Edina, Minn.) and Molly Cox '23 at the 2023 NEWMAC Championships.

The Beavers' 400 free relay team of Pelshaw, Netishen, Racicot and first-year Samantha Gilbert (Arlington, Va.) finished fifth in a program-record time of 3:34.97. They also bettered the mark of 3:35.37 established by Daniels, Green, Sznewajs and Cox at the 2023 NEWMACs. Babson's team of junior Sophia Silver (Fayetteville, N.Y.), senior Emily Tran (Longmeadow, Mass.), and first-years Tuana Turhan (Lake Forest, Ill.) and Marta Gershanok (Closter, N.J.) finished 16th in a time of 3:44.33.

The top individual performance on the day for the Green and White belonged to Pelshaw in the 200-breaststroke. She qualified seventh in the preliminaries in a season-best time of 2:28.71 and went on to place fifth in the 'A' final is 2:27.25, which puts her fourth on the program's all-time list of top performers.

The Beavers had two of the top 15 finishers in the grueling 1650 freestyle. Senior Kendall Garvey (Wilbraham, Mass.) brought home 10th place in a time of 18:33.75 and sophomore Nicolette Newsome (Bridgewater, N.J.) was 14th in a career-best time of 18:51.45, which moves her up to fourth on the program's all-time list in the event. Junior Vangella Randell (Holden, Mass.) also placed 21st in a time of 19:19.17.

Five Babson swimmers qualified for the 'B' final in their events, led by Turhan in the 200 butterfly. She qualified 11th in the morning prelims in a time of 2:10.94 and came back to win the 'B' final in a time of 2:09.41. Racicot and Netishen qualified in 18th and 19th place in the prelims of the 100 free, Racicot in 54.86 and Netishen in 55.06; Netishen finished sixth in the 'B' final in a season-best 54.11 and Racicot was right behind in seventh in a season-best 54.32. The remaining 'B' finalists were Gershanok and senior Maggie Cassily (Rye, N.H.) in the 200 backstroke; Gershanok qualified 14th in a time of 2:10.98 and Cassily qualified 18th in 2:12.96, and they came back to finish seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 'B' final in times of 2:12.03 and 2:12.36.

Rounding out the list of point scorers for the Green and White was senior Elina Sung (Dongguan, China), who placed 17th in the 1-meter diving with an 11-dive score of 203.50.

MEET NOTES
• Babson finished with four program records for the weekend, the two free relay marks on Sunday as well as the 400 medley relay, where Pelshaw, Racicot, Netishen and Turhan posted a time of 3:56.77.
• Turhan also set the program record in the 100 fly with a time of 57.51.