Lyons battle NEWMAC foe MIT in final home meet of regular season

January 25, 2006

NORTON, MA- The Wheaton College men's and women's swimming and diving teams wrapped up their regular season home slates against New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) foe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Wednesday evening, as the Lyons dropped a pair of decisions to the highly-touted Engineers in Balfour Natatorium. The men lost only their third dual meet of the season, 123-82, to fall to 10-3 overall, while the women dropped a 130-86 decision to move to 11-4.

Junior All-American Barrett Roberts (Portland, ME/Deering) highlighted the men's event with an NCAA Division III national meet provisional qualifying standard, a pair of individual event wins and one relay victory. The national meet mark came during the night's final event, as Roberts opened the 200-yard freestyle relay with a 50-yard time of 21.17. Joining Roberts on the winning relay was sophomore Matt Jordan (Ellsworth, ME/Ellsworth) and freshmen Chris Romilly (Washington, DC/Saint Albans) and T.J. Sponzo (Simsbury, CT/Avon Old Farms), who finished the race in 1:28.14.

Earlier in the meet, Roberts posted victories in the 50- and 100-yard freestyles with times of 21.43 and 47.35, respectively, while Hurley won the 500-yard free in 4:58.96. The Lyons also captured a pair of runner-up finishes during the meet, including sophomore Joe Fowler's (Farmington, ME/Mount Blue) time of 2:06.04 in the 200-yard backstroke. Wheaton's 400-yard medley relay team, consisting of Jordan, Sponzo, senior John Kuckens (West Hartford, CT/Hall) and junior Matt Hurley (Belfast, ME/Belfast Area), clocked in at 3:45.17.

For the women, sophomore Abby Pratt (Melrose, MA/Melrose) topped the field in the 50-yard freestyle event with a time of 25.13 and eventually led the 200-yard freestyle relay team in victory. Pratt, senior Courtney Catalano (Westford, MA/Westford Academy), sophomore Meg Miller (Duxbury, MA/Duxbury) and first-year Mandy Cumings (Zionsville, IN/Zionsville Community) sided for a 1:44.03 finish, narrowly defeating MIT's top foursome by 0.62 seconds.

Second-place results came from the 400-yard medley relay team of Pratt, Miller, junior Cassie Bohn (Manhattan Beach, CA/Mira Costa) and freshman Caitlin Glover (Durham, NH/Berwick Academy), Miller in the 100-yard freestyle, junior Kristen Behrens (Uxbridge, MA/Uxbridge) in the 1000-yard free and freshman Casey Shanley (Rumson, NJ/Suffield Academy) in the 500-yard free.

The Lyons return to action on Friday with a dual meet at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. The competition in North Dartmouth is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m.

Complete Results

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