KINGSTON, R.I. – Sarah Leonard (Brockton, Mass.) won the 100 backstroke to lead the Regis College women's swimming and diving team up to fifth place after Saturday's competition at the 2020 New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association (NEISDA) Championships at the University of Rhode Island's Tootell Aquatic Center.
Leonard posted the fastest qualifying time in the morning at 1:00.79, 19/100ths of a second quicker than her previous season best. In the evening, she established a new personal collegiate best mark of 1:00.21, winning the event by 2/10ths of a second over Maddie Kovach of UMass Dartmouth.
It was a busy day for Leonard, as she totaled six swims Saturday, three in each session. She led off the 200 medley relay with 50 back splits of 27.55 seconds in the preliminaries and 27.60 seconds in the finals, joining with Julia Burke (North Andover, Mass.), Alexa Lancisi (Milford, Mass.), and Jessica Zernitsky (Newton, Mass.) to finish fifth in the finals in 1:54.36 after a preliminary time of 1:53.65.
After anchoring the 200 freestyle relay in the morning with a 50 free split of 24.77 seconds, Leonard led off the evening race by posting a split of 25.66 seconds, teaming with Kyleigh Boatwright (Roseville, Calif.), Lancisi, and Zernitsky to finish fifth in 1:43.78.
The other All-New England performance of the day for the Pride belonged to senior diver Elisabeth McQuaid (Marlborough, Mass.), as she finished fourth in the finals of one meter diving with an 11-dive score of 346.25. She improved upon her Friday preliminary score by 30 points as she ended up just 1.35 points behind second place.
In the consolation final of the 100 backstroke, Boatwright finished first in 1:02.15 to end up ninth overall in the event, while Cecelia Adelfio (Gloucester, Mass.) touched the wall fifth in the race in 1:05.24 to post an overall finish of 13th place.
Zernitsky finished second in the "B" final of the 50 butterfly in 27.88 seconds, only 8/100ths of a second behind the race winner, for a 10th place overall finish. Lancisi also scored in the event by finishing 17th in the preliminaries in 29.17 seconds, as did Mallytza Ibarra Davila (Yuma, Ariz.) as she finished in a tie for 23rd place in 29.59 seconds.
Thalia Bowie (Lexington, Mass.) compiled a total of 1,850 yards of competition swimming Saturday, starting with the preliminary of the 400 individual medley, in which she qualified for the "B" final with a time of 5:04.76. After leading off Regis' "B" 200 freestyle relay with a 50 free split of 27.28 seconds and posting a time of 11:48.54 to finish 14th in the 1000 freestyle, Bowie touched the wall second in the 400 IM consolation final in 5:04.09 to end up 10th overall in that event. Gloria Sutton (Suffield, Conn.) also competed in the 1000 freestyle, finishing in 19th place in 12:29.85.
Burke qualified for the consolation final of the 100 breaststroke with a preliminary time of 1:13.63, and then she finished eighth in the evening session for a 16th place finish overall in 1:13.99. Lindsey Bone (Rosenberg, Texas) picked up a couple of points for the Pride by finishing in 22nd place in the morning preliminaries with a time of 1:19.32.
After Saturday night's competition, Regis finds itself in fifth place in the team standings with 489.5 points, 13.5 points ahead of sixth place UMass Dartmouth and 22 points behind fourth place Bridgewater State. Roger Williams broke the 1,000-point barrier, remaining in first place with 1,056 points, 115 points in front of second place Simmons.
The 2020 NEISDA Swimming and Diving Championships enters its final day Sunday, Feb. 16, starting at 10 a.m. with the preliminaries of the 100 freestyle, 50 backstroke, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 100 individual medley, and 400 freestyle relay.