WATERVILLE, Me. - In a tight battle between NESCAC foes, the Wesleyan women's swimming & diving team suffered their first defeat of 2022 as Colby came away with a tight 161-135 win on Saturday afternoon. Wesleyan (5-6) saw their five-match win streak come to an end while the Mules (3-3) won for the first time since Nov. 21.
Four individual and one relay event were won by Wesleyan on the day including both the 50 and 100 breast by
Mengmeng Gibbs '22. She started with the 50 breast where she touched by nearly a full second faster than the runner-up as she clocked in at 31.80 seconds. Later in the day, Gibbs went back-to-back with another convincing win in the 100 breast, finishing with a time of 1:09.19.
Olivia Stevenson '25 started the individual events off with a win for Wesleyan in the 100 free. The first-year dominated the field, winning by nearly five seconds while her time was more than 30 seconds faster than the third place finisher. Stevenson posted a time of 10:47.88 to claim the victory.
Another individual winner came early in the day as
Izzy Pennington '24 grabbed a win in the 50 back with a time of 27.65 seconds.
In the final event of the day, Wesleyan grabbed a thrilling win in the 200 free relay as the Cardinal team of
Sarah Schou '23, Gibbs, Pennington and
Megan Bauerle '24 touched in 1:39.86 which was just ahead of Colby's top group who posted 1:40.04.
Starting off the day with the 200 medley relay, Wesleyan's top team of Pennington, Gibbs,
Victoria Carroll '24 and Schou took second place with a time of 1:50.66.
Other top performances on the day included
Amanda McHugh '22 who clocked in at 59.57 seconds in the 100 butterfly which was only 0.23 seconds behind Colby's Addie Paige for first place.
Zoe Paglia '23 scored a 200.91 in the 1-meter dive to take the runner-up spot. Schou was runner-up in the 50 and 100 free.
Jasmine Luu '25 competed in the 50 butterfly, grabbing second with a time of 26.89 seconds which was just 0.19 off the first place time.
Wesleyan heads into Senior Day next weekend as the Cardinals will host Conn. College in what is the final tune-up prior to the NESCAC Championships. The Cardinals and Camels start their dual meet at 2 PM from the Wesleyan Natatorium.
