CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – For the fourth straight year, the Regis College women's swimming and diving team finished within the top 10, ending up seventh overall as the 2019 New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association (NEISDA) Championships concluded Sunday at MIT's Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center.
Sarah Leonard (Brockton, Mass.) enjoyed Regis's best individual result of the entire weekend, reaching the podium with a second-place finish in the 50 backstroke. Leonard posted the second-fastest time in the morning preliminaries at 28.34 seconds, and then she touched the wall second in the evening final with a mark of 27.96 seconds, behind only Claire Xu of Brandeis, who set a NEISDA record at 26.38 seconds.
Kyleigh Boatwright (Roseville, Calif.) scored in two individual events for the Pride on the final day, starting in the 100 freestyle, where she qualified for the B-final after a preliminary time of 55.97 seconds. In the evening session, she finished seventh in the race in 56.22 seconds to end up 15th overall in the event. Katherine Mariano (Newton, Mass.) also picked up a point for Regis in the 100 freestyle, finishing 24th in the preliminaries with a season-best time of 58.22 seconds.
In the 100 individual medley, Boatwright advanced to the A-final, her second top-eight preliminary performance of the meet, with a time of 1:04.01. After finishing sixth in the morning session, she improved to a fifth place finish in the evening race, posting a time of 1:04.40 in the A-final.
Boatwright led off the 400 freestyle relay with a 100 free split of 56.93 seconds, followed by Leonard with a fast second leg at 55.41 seconds. Mariano took the third leg and completed it in 57.45 seconds, and Jessica Zernitsky (Newton, Mass.) posted an anchor split of 56.77 seconds to give the Pride a sixth-place finish in the relay with a total time of 3:46.56, almost five full seconds faster than the morning preliminary mark.
All three members of the Pride entered in the 1650 freestyle scored points in the event, led by Gloria Sutton (Suffield, Conn.) with a season-best time of 19:13.81. Thalia Bowie (Lexington, Mass.) also posted a season-best mark, finishing 10th in 19:15.61, as did Ryan Moran (Arlington, Mass.) in 21st place in 20:31.66.
Alexa Lancisi (Milford, Mass.) posted another scoring performance for Regis in the 200 butterfly, qualifying for the B-final with a time of 2:24.59 in the morning session. She cut over two seconds off that mark in the evening race, finishing third in the B-final and 11th overall with a season-best time of 2:22.37.
The Pride compiled 583 points in the meet for a seventh-place finish, over 60 points ahead of UMass Dartmouth. This is the eighth time the Regis women have placed in the top 10 at this event in the history of the program and the second-best placement in the final standings ever, behind only a sixth-place finish two years ago. Simmons adds the NEISDA title to the GNAC championship it won three weeks.
Regis College posted a 7-3 dual meet record, a second place finish at the GNAC Championships, and this weekend's seventh place finish. Elisabeth McQuaid (Marlborough, Mass.) is eligible to be named as a participant at the NCAA Division III Women's Northeast-North Diving Regional Championships, to be held here at MIT next weekend, March 1-2. A complete list of participants and the total number of qualifying spots available for the NCAA Championships will be announced after Tuesday, Feb. 26.