|
Owen Rood is the fastest 50 freestyler in the NESCAC for 2012
|
WILLIAMSTOWN - Tufts senior co-captain Owen Rood (Branford, CT) and sophomore diver Johann Schmidt (Nanuet, NY) both won two individual titles at the 2012 NESCAC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships Friday through Sunday at Williams College. The Jumbos, who were in fourth place after two days at the event, vaulted into third place overall after a successful Sunday.
Rood won the first two individual titles 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. On Sunday, Rood added the 100 freestyle title. His time of 45.03 seconds was an NCAA B cut and broke his own school reocrd of 45.27 set in 2010. It was also 0.89 faster than his 45.92 time in the preliminaries, which had been second-best.
Schmidt is now 4 for 4 in his career at NESCAC championship events. He won off the one- and three-meter boards as a freshman last year and again this season. 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. His 536.25 score in three-meter diving won on Sunday, and was also a pool record and national qualifying mark. He had scored 506 in the prelims.
Tufts capped the meet on Sunday with an All-Conference finish of third place in the 400 freestyle relay. Rood and sophomores Drew Berman (Miami, FL), Andrew Turk (Westlake Village, CA) and Austin Wood (Fort Washington, PA) timed 3:05.33, helping Tufts finish the Championship with 1,030 points. They out-distanced fourth-place Connecticut College (964) by 66. Host Williams College won the 2012 conference title at 2,011 points and Amherst was second with 1,959.
The Jumbos also swam third in the 800 freestyle relay on Saturday. Rood, Berman, Wood and senior Alex Strittmatter (Fairfield, CT) recorded a 6:57.07 time. In another strong relay effort on Saturday, the 200 medley foursome was fifth with a 1:33.62 time. Sophomores Kyle Savidge (South Windsor, CT), Turk, and Eric Douglas (Southbury, CT) preceded Rood in the anchor position.
Tufts had started the meet on Friday with a bang, swimming the fastest time in the preliminaries of the first event – the 200 freestyle relay. Freshman Will Parker (Frederick, MD), Wood, 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. The Jumbos finished out a good Friday in the relays with the 400 medley. Savidge, Turk Douglas and Wood finished fifth with a 3:29.64 time in the final.
On Sunday, Savidge added a solo fifth with a NCAA B cut time of 1:53.40 in the 200 backstroke. Douglas had a seventh-place finish for Tufts in the 50 butterfly on Friday, touching in 23.25 seconds. A 4:16.17 in the 400 individual medley by senior Lou Tamposi (Hernando, FL) was eighth on Saturday. Typically a freestyler, Rood switched it up and was seventh in the 100 breaststroke (58.82) on Saturday.
Tufts will now await word on which of its national qualifying times will make the NCAA Div. III meet, scheduled for March 21-24 in Indianapolis.
Championship results
#
