MIDDLEBURY, VT – Tufts sophomore diver Matt Rohrer won the one-meter diving title Friday on the first day of the 2015 NESCAC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships held at Middlebury College.
Rohrer out-dueled Williams College senior Rohann Bhatt and Amherst College junior Asher Lishtig to win his second conference title. Rohrer took first place in three-meter diving at the conference championships last season as a freshman.
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| Junior tri-captain Michael Winget broke his own school record in the 50 backstroke |
Bhatt had placed first in the preliminaries earlier on Friday with a 489.85 score. Rohrer was second at 480.20 while Lishtig scored 478.05 in the opening round. That led to a pressure-packed final, where Rohrer was clutch in recording a pool-record 499.95 score. He defeated Bhatt (486.95) by more than 13 points. Lishtig placed third with a 472.10 score.
The victory continued Tufts' dominance in the diving events at the NESCAC meet. Including the two won by Rohrer, Tufts has now taken eight of the 10 diving championships from the past five conference meets. Two-time NCAA champion Johann Schmidt earned three conference victories on each board from 2011-14.
The Jumbos also broke two school records and swam two NCAA B cut times on Friday. They are fifth after one day of action with a 360.5 score. Williams (709), Amherst (577) and Connecticut College (534.5) are the top three heading into Saturday.
The Jumbos' 400 medley relay closed Friday's action with a school record and NCAA B time of 3:23.20. The foursome was junior tri-captain Michael Winget, freshman Morgan Ciliv, sophomore William Metcalfe and junior tri-captain Cam Simko. Fifth overall, they erased a six-year old 3:23.46 mark from the record book and were within the 3:24.29 B time.
Winget had the team's top swimming finish and a school record in the 50 backstroke. He swam a time of 23.07 seconds in the preliminaries to break his own mark of 23.52 set last year. He later took third in the final with a time of 23.38 seconds.
Simko added a B cut in the 500 freestyle preliminaries, touching in 4:33.16. He placed sixth in the final (4:37.11). The 200 freestyle relay of Simko, Winget, freshman Panos Skoufalos and junior Harry Wood placed sixth (1:24.48) in the final. The Jumbos also received eighth-place points from freshman diver Aaron Idelson (353.80).
Day two of the meet starts with preliminaries tomorrow at 10 am.
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