MIDDLEBURY, VT – Nothing topped sophomore diver Matt Rohrer winning the NESCAC one-meter title on Friday, but the Tufts men's swimming & diving team did record three NCAA B cut times and break a school record during the second day of the 2015 NESCAC Championship held at Middlebury College on Saturday.
Sophomore Luca Guadagno swam a 4:02 flat in the consolation final of the 400 individual medley to highlight Saturday for the Jumbos. The time broke the 4:04.54 school record previously set by Chris Vorlicek in 2009. In the preliminaries of the 400 IM Saturday morning, freshman Zachary Wallace finished eighth (4:03.97) and Guadagno was 10th (4:04.90), both NCAA B cuts. Because Guadagno failed to reach the final, his 4:02 was ninth overall. Wallace did final and like Guadagno improved his B cut to 4:02.87 for seventh overall. Both were well under the NCAA B mark of 4:07.40.
The top Tufts finish on Saturday and another NCAA B cut came from junior tri-captain Michael Winget in the 100 backstroke. After posting a 50.15 B time in the prelims, he improved it to 50.04 to tie for third in the final. Both marks were faster than the 51.34 B qualifier.
Freshman Morgan Ciliv earned the third B cut of Saturday with a tremendous comeback in the pre-consolation final of the 100 breaststroke. He was a disappointing 17th in the preliminaries with a 58.11 in the morning. He returned at night to record a 57.57 that was an NCAA B cut (57.81) and just 0.03 off the Tufts school record.
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Junior tri-captain has two third-place finishes in backstroke events
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Two Jumbo relays bookended Saturday's events with good finishes. The 200 medley relay started with a 1:33.55 performed by Winget, Ciliv, sophomore William Metcalfe and freshman Panos Skoufalos to place fifth. The 800 freestyle relay at the end of the day timed 6:51.93 for fourth. Simko, senior tri-captain Mike Napolitano, freshman James McElduff and junior Anthony DeBenedetto combined on that mark.
Tufts is fifth in team scoring after two days of action with a 745 score. Williams (1,461.5), Amherst (1,080) and Connecticut College (1,019) are the top three heading into the final day of the meet on Sunday. The Jumbos are right on the heels of fourth-place Bates (752).
On Friday, Rohrer out-dueled Williams College senior Rohann Bhatt and Amherst College junior Asher Lishtig to win his second conference title on the first day of the Championship. Rohrer took first place in three-meter diving at the conference championship last season as a freshman.
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 last nine diving championships from the past five conference meets. Two-time NCAA champion Johann Schmidt earned three conference victories on each board from 2011-14. Rohrer will compete in the three-meter event on Sunday.
The Jumbos also broke two school records and swam two NCAA B cut times on Friday.
The 400 medley relay closed Friday's action with a school record and NCAA B time of 3:23.20. The foursome was Winget, Ciliv, Metcalfe and 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 Friday'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 to finish well within the 4:36.96 B mark. He placed sixth in the final (4:37.11).
The 200 freestyle relay of Simko, Winget, 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 three of the meet starts with preliminaries tomorrow at 10 am.
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