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Owen Rood is the fastest 50 freestyler in the NESCAC for 2012
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WILLIAMSTOWN - Tufts senior co-captain Owen Rood (Branford, CT) and sophomore diver Johann Schmidt (Nanuet, NY) both won individual titles on the first day of the NESCAC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships at Williams College on Friday. The Jumbos are in fourth place overall with two days remaining.
Rood won the first individual title of his career. He was a NESCAC champion with the 200 medley relay in 2009 and 2010, but on Friday he added the 50 freestyle championship with a finals time of 20.73 seconds. That is an NCAA B cut, and was 0.20 faster than the 20.93 he swam in the preliminaries to place third. Tufts had four swimmers score in the top 16 for Friday's 50 free.
Schmidt is now 3 for 3 in his career at NESCAC championship events. He won off the one- and three-meter boards as a freshman last year. On Friday, he took his second straight one-meter title with a 496.10 score that is the best ever at Williams' Samuelson-Muir Pool. That is also a national qualifying mark, as was his 486.40 that was tops in the preliminaries.
Tufts started the meet with a bang, swimming the fastest time in the preliminaries of the first event – the 200 freestyle relay. Freshman Will Parker (Frederick, MD), sophomore Austin Wood (Fort Washington, PA), freshman John Devine (Oxford, MA) and Rood had a 1:23.88 time. Wood and Devine switched spots in the final, Tufts improved its time to 1:23.78, but they dropped to fifth place overall.
Sophomore Eric Douglas (Southbury, CT) had a top-eight finish for Tufts in the 50 butterfly, touching in 23.25 seconds. He had been fourth in the preliminary at 23.12 seconds.
The Jumbos finished out a good day in the relays with the 400 medley. Sophomore Kyle Savidge (South Windsor, CT), sophomore Andrew Turk (Westlake Village, CA), Douglas and Wood finished fifth with a 3:29.64 time in the final.
With 380 points scored on Friday, Tufts sits behind first-place Williams (710), Amherst (692.5) and Bowdoin (400.5). The meet continues on Saturday and Sunday.
Championship results
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