CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— The Babson College women's swimming & diving team established two program records, produced an All-Conference result in the 400 free relay, and registered the best team finish in the 30-year history of the meet at the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championships on Sunday inside MIT's Zesiger Center Pool.
The Beavers totaled 177 points on Sunday and finished in a program-best fourth place out of 10 teams with 530 points, just 15 points ahead of fifth-place Wheaton. MIT claimed its 15th straight NEWMAC title with 1632.5 points, Coast Guard was second with 1013, and WPI was third with 731.
Babson's 530 points is its highest score at the NEWMAC Championships, surpassing the 416 points scored at last year's meet. The fourth-place finish is Babson's best since the meet began in 1997, surpassing the fifth place in 2005 and the sixth place finishes in 1999 and 2007.
Due to an incoming storm in the area, all individual events were timed finals on Sunday morning in place of the traditional morning preliminaries and evening finals.
The Beavers' 400-yard freestyle relay team of senior
Sophia Sznewajs (Edina, Minn.), sophomore
Samantha Gilbert (Arlington, Va.), junior
Sylvie Racicot (Arlington, Mass.), and sophomore
Julia Netishen (Exeter, N.H.) recorded Babson's second program record of the day and sixth of the weekend. They earned All-Conference honors with a second-place finish in a program-record time of 3:32.96, breaking last year's record time (3:34.97) by more than two seconds.
The Beavers' B team of sophomore
Hailey Cronan (New Market, Md.), first-year
AJ Hallbert (Enterprise, Ala.), and fellow sophomores
Tuana Turhan (Lake Forest, Ill.) and
Marta Gershanok (Closter, N.J.) placed 12th in a time of 3:37.89.
The Beavers had three swimmers score points in the 100-yard freestyle, led by two who eclipsed the program record of 53.28 set by Abigail Voce '22 in the 2020 NEWMAC Championships. Racicot finished fifth in a program-record time of 53.13 seconds while Netishen was right behind in sixth place in 53.19. Sznewajs touched the wall in eighth place in a career-best time of 53.46, and Hallbert was one spot shy of scoring with a 21st place in a season-best time of 55.27.
Turhan had a strong finish in the 200 butterfly, placing eighth in a time of 2:07.25. First-year
Finn Bergquist (Marblehead, Mass.) was another Beaver who was one spot shy of scoring with a 21st place in a time of 2:23.80.
The Beavers had a pair of top 10 finishers in the 200 backstroke. Gershanok came in ninth place with a season-best time of 2:10.44 and first-year
Becky Hwang (Needham, Mass.) was right behind in 10th place with a time of 2:11.92. First-year
Lakshmi Prasanth (Apex, N.C.) brought home 23rd place in the event with a time of 2:20.49.
All four Babson athletes finished in the top 20 of the 1650 freestyle to score points for the team. First-year
Middy Hinckley (Trent Woods, N.C.) was the top Beaver finisher, taking 11th place in a season-best time of 18:48.28, followed by first-year
Leila Evans (Sandwich, Mass.) in 16th place in a season-best 19:17.62, senior
Vangella Randell (Holden, Mass.) in 17th in a season-best 19:30.97, and fellow senior
Jenny Chung (Cumming, Ga.) in 19th in 19:35.98.
Cronan was the top Babson finisher in the 200 breaststroke, scoring points with an 18th place in a season-best time of 2:37.61. Junior
Nicolette Newsome (Bridgewater, N.J.) came in 32nd place in a time of 2:48.88.
MEET NOTES
• Babson's two All-Conference relay performances over the weekend, which are honors given to the top two finishers in each event, came in the 200 free relay (Gilbert, Hallbert, Racicot, Netishen) and 400 free relay (Sznewajs, Gilbert, Racicot, Netishen), and are the first All-Conference relay teams in program history.
• Netishen's All-Conference showing in the 50 free is Babson's first individual honor since 2008, and she is just the third Babson woman to earn All-Conference honors following Meg Lynch '08 (11 times from 2005-08) and Rachael Bishop '07 (twice in 2005).
• Babson's two program records on Sunday (400 free relay, 100 free) came after records on Friday (Gilbert, Hallbert, Racicot, Netishen in the 200 free relay, 1:35.98, and Netishen in the 50 free, 23.86) and Saturday (Turhan in the 100 fly, 57.35, and Netishen, Gilbert, Turhan, Racicot in the 200 medley relay, 1:47.58).
