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| Freshman Morgan Ciliv's two fourth-place finishes led Tufts individually |
CAMBRIDGE - Several freshmen were leading contributors as the Tufts men's swimming & diving team placed third out of six teams at MIT's Winter Invitational. The three-day meet finished on Sunday.
Jumbo newcomers introduced themselves nicely in the opening event on Friday, helping the 800 freestyle relay place fourth. Freshmen Lorenzo Lau, Zachary Wallace and Neil Spazzarini were in front of junior tri-captain Cam Simko to produce a 7:02.49 time.
Freshman Morgan Ciliv also made a splash. Ciliv swam fourth in the 100 breaststroke with a NCAA B cut time of 57.72 seconds on Saturday. On Sunday, his 2:07.53 time in the 200 breaststroke was also fourth. He led four Jumbo finishers in the top 10 of the 200 butterfly with a 1:55.79 touch that was sixth on Saturday. He also posted a sixth in Sunday's 200 individual medley (1:57.09).
Ciliv's 100 was only 0.18 seconds off the Tufts record set in 2009, while his 200 breaststroke time was only 0.22 seconds off the school record set in 2009.
Ciliv was also the second leg of the 400 medley relay which closed Saturday's racing. Freshman Panos Skoufalos and Wallace sandwiched Ciliv in the foursome and Simko anchored again for a 3:32.01 time that was fifth. Skoufalos, Ciliv, Wallace and sophomore William Metcalfe teamed up for a 1:37.01 time in the 200 medley relay to open Sunday's races with a sixth-place showing.
Wallace tied for sixth in the 400 individual medley with 4:12.98 speed Saturday and fellow freshman James McElduff was seventh in the 1,650 freestyle on Friday touching in a 16:36.68 time.
In Saturday's 200 freestyle relay, freshmen again made up three-quarters of the team with Lau, Scott Simpson and Skoufalos preceding junior Harry Wood for a 1:27.12 time that was sixth in the final. The foursome of Lau, Simko, Skoufalos, Wood had put together a faster time of 1:26.72 in the prelims.
Simko was the top veteran contributor at the meet, adding a 1:43.37 in the 200 freestyle on Saturday for sixth. He was also seventh in the 500 freestyle on Sunday with a 4:42.06 time. Sophomore Luca Guadagno had the sixth-fastest swim in the 200 backstroke on Sunday (2:00.86). Junior Anthony DeBenedetto had Tufts' best time in the 200 fly with a 1:55.36 in the preliminaries.
Like the 800 freestyle which opened the meet placing fourth, the 400 freestyle relay closed the meet with a fourth-place effort. The team of Lau, Simko, Simpson and Metcalfe combined on a 3:10.3 time.
The Jumbos were in the top half of the team standings trailing host MIT and Keene State while leading SUNY New Paltz, Bowdoin and Wheaton. This was the final competition of the fall semester for the Jumbos.
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