200 freestyle relay champions, from left: Sabrina Wang ’26, Alexandra Turvey ’24, Francesca Coppo ’27 (out of pool) with Valerie Mello PZ ’25 in the water.
The Pomona-Pitzer women’s swimming program claimed its first national title in any event in 40 years when Sabrina Wang ’26, Alexandra Turvey ’24, Francesca Coppo ’27 and Valerie Mello PZ ’25 combined to win the 200 freestyle relay on the second day of the 2024 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships in March.
Two days later, three of them—Wang, Turvey and Mello—combined with Katie Gould ’24 to win the 400 freestyle relay on the final day of the championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. Before the first of the two relay titles, the program’s last national title was in the 800 freestyle relay in 1984.
400 freestyle relay champions, from left: Alexandra Turvey ’24, Katie Gould ’24, Sabrina Wang ’26, Valerie Mello PZ ’25.
The 2024 Pomona-Pitzer women finished seventh overall in the team competition won by Kenyon College. Turvey, the three-time SCIAC Athlete of the Year in women’s swimming, capped her individual career at the NCAA meet with two national runner-up finishes, taking second in the 50 freestyle as well as the 100 butterfly.