WILLIAMSTOWN - Fresh off a successful two-week training trip to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, the #16 Tufts men's swimming & diving team were back in action against conference rivals #8 Williams and Wesleyan at Wiliams on Saturday. The men swam very well and defeated Wesleyan 224-63, but came up short against Williams 175-123. Tufts has never beaten Williams in a dual meet.
Mike Del Moro (Pequannock, NJ), Zed Debbaut (Hood River, OR), EJ Testa (Cheshire, CT), and Owen Rood (Branford, CT) started the meet with a second place in the 200 medley relay in 1:36.63. Tufts is the two-time reigning champion in the relay at the conference meet and was just touched out by Williams.
Testa and Del Moro teamed up to go 1-2 in the 100 backstroke at 53.76 and 54.66 respectively. Testa also finished first in the 100 butterfly with a time of 52.99 and Alex Strittmatter (Fairfield, CT) was a close second in 54.44. Debbaut finished second in the 100 breaststroke with 1:01.48.
Brian Marko (Barrington, IL) won a close 200 butterfly, but was able to get his hand on the wall first in a time of 1:59.50. Strittmatter finished 4th in 2:03.41. Gordy Jenkins (Kansas City, MO) finished second in the 50 freestyle in a time of 22.18 just ahead of Dave Meyer (Clarendon Hills, IL) who finished in 22.35. Meyer also finished third in the 100 freestyle in a time of 48.17.
Joe Lessard (Framingham, MA) finished with a very strong last 50 yards in the 500 freestyle to win the event. He also finished fourth in the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:48.08. Johann Schmidt had a very successful meet on both the one-meter and three-meter diving events, winning both in national qualifying scores.
The Jumbos finished the meet strong by placing second, third, and fourth in the final event of the night - the 400 freestyle relay. Jenkins, Andrew Altman (New Fairfield, CT), Meyer, and Rood finished second. Lessard, Strittmatter, Austin Wood (Fort Washington, PA), and Testa finished third while Del Moro, Andrew Turk (Westlake Village, CA), Craig Olynyk (Redmond, WA), and Peter Debbaut (Hood River, OR) finished fourth.
Coach Adam Hoyt's Jumbos return to action with a dual-meet at MIT next Saturday (Jan. 22).
Meet Results
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Game release written by Reed Shimberg
