BRUNSWICK, ME – The stellar Tufts University diving team under coach Brad Snodgrass added another notch to its belt by sweeping the one- and three-meter events at the 2014 NESCAC Swimming & Diving Championships hosted by Bowdoin College at LeRoy Greason Pool Friday through Sunday.
Tufts senior tri-captain Johann Schmidt won the one-meter event on Friday. Freshman Matt Rohrer then upset both his teammate Schmidt and Amherst's Colin White to take the three-meter victory on Sunday. The wins helped the Jumbos place fourth overall at the meet.
Competing in the final NESCAC Championship meet of his outstanding career, Schmidt started strong by winning the one-meter diving title on the first day of competition Friday. He not only won the sixth conference title of his career, he did so with the best score he's ever achieved in the one-meter event. His final total of 578.15 was a new pool, school, NESCAC and conference championship meet record.
For his career, Schmidt earned conference victories in the one-meter three times (2014, 2012, 2011) and three-meter also three times (2013, 2012, 2011). He was selected as the Diver of the Meet for the 2014 Championship.
Rohrer showed he has what it takes in his first-ever post-season meet. He helped the Jumbos earned big points in one-meter diving as his 528.90 score in the finals was good for third place. He then showed his intention to keep conference diving supremacy at Tufts in the future by scoring 533.70 to win three-meter on Sunday. Schmidt was second with a 524.45 score.
Amherst's White, who gave Schmidt his only NESCAC one-meter loss in last year's event, placed second in one-meter with a 536.55 score and third in three-meter at 515.95 as the trio waged an exciting conference diving competition this weekend.
Jumbo freshman William Metcalfe was also not intimidated in his first conference meet appearance. He opened on Friday by twice swimming school-record and national B cut times in the 200 individual medley. In the preliminaries his 1:51.63 was 3.46 seconds faster than the previous Tufts record of 1:55.09 set by Chris Vorlicek in 2009. Metcalfe then improved upon that mark with a 1:51.53 in the final for third place at the meet and a national qualifying mark.
On Saturday, Metcalfe swam a time of 49.49 seconds in the preliminaries of the 100 butterfly to break a Tufts record and establish a national B cut. He erased the previous time of 49.90 by Andrew Shields in 2009 from the record book. Metcalfe placed seventh in the final with a 49.80 finish.
Metcalfe finished up a great weekend by leading a group of five Jumbos who placed among the top 16 in the 200 butterfly on Sunday. His 1:51.21 time in the final was a national B cut performance and fourth at the meet.
Four Jumbos in all swam national B qualifiers in the 200 fly. Sophomore Anthony DeBenedetto, the school-record holder in the event, had a 1:51.26 in the preliminaries before placing fifth in the final (1:51.42). Freshman Gus Simms had his better B time in the trials as well with a 1:52.41 before taking eighth in the final (1:53.25). Junior Mike Napolitano added a 1:53.28 B cut in the preliminaries.
Sophomore Michael Winget broke Jumbo backstroke records on all three days. He surpassed E.J. Testa's 2011 school record of 23.65 seconds in the 50 backstroke on Friday. In the preliminaries, Winget swam 23.52 for the new record time. He managed eighth in the final at 23.81 seconds. On Saturday, Winget's 50.49 time in the 100 backstroke preliminaries improved upon his own school mark of 50.63 set last year. That was also a national B qualifier. In the 100 back final, Winget was eighth in 50.86 seconds. In the 200 back on Sunday, Winget's 1:49.53 was better than his 1:49.96 last year for a new school mark and a B cut as well. He took eighth in the 2014 200 final at a 1:50.51 time.
Tufts established six new school records in all at the meet. Head coach Adam Hoyt's team also swam several national B times during the course of the weekend.
On Sunday, in addition to the four 200 fly B cuts, senior Kyle Savidge joined Winget in posting a 200 backstroke B qualifier with a 1:51.39 time.
Among Saturday's B qualifiers, the 800 freestyle relay group of Metcalfe, Napolitano, De Benedetto and and sophomore Cam Simko had the highest finish in fourth with a 6:51.81 time. Both freshman Luca Guadagno and senior Christian Jones hit B marks in the 400 individual medley on Saturday. Guadagno was eighth in the final with his 4:05.48 B time. Jones hit the mark with his 4:05.51 for 10th place in the consolation finals. That was almost three seconds faster than the 4:08.40 preliminary time he recorded.
Simko swam a national B cut in the 500 freestyle on Friday. His 4:36.12 time was fourth overall at the race. Tufts had three swimmers place in the top 10 for the event. DeBenedetto took eighth with his 4:41.17 time in the finals. Jones was 16th in the prelims (4:40.81) before speeding it up in the consolation final for a 4:38.98 10th-place effort.
Three Tufts relays overall placed in the top four. Closing the swimming events on Friday, the 400 medley foursome of Winget, senior Andrew Turk, Metcalfe and senior Drew Berman scored fourth with their 3:25.42 time. The 400 freestyle relay team of Metcalfe, freshman Harry wood, senior Eric Douglas and Berman was fourth (3:08.38) on Sunday.
The Williams College men's swimming and diving team claimed its 12th consecutive conference title as the 2014 meet concluded Sunday night at Bowdoin College. The Ephs claimed their 13th crown overall by accumulating a team score of 1,849 points to defeat closest competitor Amherst, who posted 1,750.
Connecticut College recorded 1,468 points to take third with Tufts totaling 1,147 to finish fourth. In a hard-fought battle for fifth place, Bowdoin finished with 777.5 points, narrowly edging rival Bates with 777.
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