WestConn swimmers finish New England Championships in tenth place

Megan Dyson injured during Saturday awards ceremony and can't swim on Sunday

PRELIM RESULTS
FINALS RESULTS

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VT (Feb. 21) — The Western Connecticut State University women’s swimming and diving team’s chances of holding on to fifth place at the New England Championships suffered a major set-back hours before Sunday’s preliminary heats even began. On Saturday evening, junior Megan Dyson (Farmington, CT), one of the favorites to win Sunday’s 200-yard Breaststroke, fell off the podium during an awards ceremony and was unable to return for Sunday’s events.

WestConn senior Francesca Testa (Cheshire, CT) swam well for a third day in a row taking third in the 200-yard Butterfly with a time of 2:13.99, nearly a one-second improvement over her time from the morning’s preliminary heats and 15 seconds faster than her qualifying time going into the event. With Dyson out of the line-up, WestConn’s only other individual qualifier for Sunday was junior Kari Piedescalzo (Cheshire, CT) who finished in 24th place in the 100 IM after prelims and did not qualify for finals.

Senior Stephanie Mills (Danbury, CT), who replaced Dyson on the 400 Freestyle relay, teamed with senior Katie Meleg (Danbury, CT), Piedescalzo, and Testa to finish in eighth place in 3:49.75.

WestConn climbed to fifth place with 275 points after the second day of the three-day event, but the Colonials finished the competition in 10th place with a final point total of 322.

During the three days of competition, seven new WestConn team records were established:
50 Free - Francesca Testa - :25.53
200 Free - Katie Meleg - 2:01.49
500 Free - Katie Meleg - 5:20.77
50 Fly - Francesca Testa - :26.67
100 Fly - Francesca Testa - :59.59
200 Fly - Francesca Testa - 2:13.99
100 Back - Katie Meleg - 1:00.80
4x100 Free Relay - Francesca Testa, Stephanie Mills, Kari Piedescalzo, Katie Meleg - 3:49.75

Final Top-10 team scores:
1. Keene State College 924
2. Bentley University 802
3. Eastern Conn. State U. 709
4. Roger Williams University 570.5
5. Westfield State College 353
6. Assumption College 344
6. Saint Michael's College 344
8. Simmons College 339
9. Plymouth State University 325
10. Western Connecticut State Univ. 322


 
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