MIDDLEBURY, VT – Sophomore Matt Rohrer won the one-meter diving title and was the runner-up in three-meter to lead the Tufts men's swimming & diving team at the 2015 NESCAC Championship held at Middlebury College Friday through Sunday (Feb. 20-22).
Head coach Adam Hoyt's Jumbos broke six school records and recorded 13 NCAA B qualifying marks during the 24-event schedule. Tufts placed fourth in the meet with a 1,086 score, vaulting over Bates on Sunday. Williams (2,066.5), Amherst (1,579) and Connecticut College (1,323) were the top three.
On Friday, Rohrer out-dueled Williams College senior Rohann Bhatt and Amherst College junior Asher Lichtig 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 Lichtig 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 13 points and Lichtig 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 nine of the last 12 diving championships from the past six conference meets. Two-time NCAA champion Johann Schmidt earned three conference victories on each board from 2011-14 and Rob Matera was the 2010 one-meter titlist.
Rohrer was defeated by Lichtig in the three-meter event on Sunday. Third in the preliminaries with a 469.05 score, the Tufts sophomore moved up a spot in the final with a 503.90 total. Lichtig won the event with a 515.20 score. Rohrer will compete in both events at the NCAA Zone Diving Championships hosted by Springfield College next weekend (Feb. 27-28).
With 60 team points scored in the two events, Rohrer earned the NESCAC Diver of the Meet award. Brad Snodgrass earned the Diving Coach of the Year for the fifth straight year and for the seventh time overall.
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| Michael Winget broke three school records and was part of three NCAA B cuts |
Junior tri-captain Michael Winget had a fine three days for the Jumbos, breaking three records and swimming two NCAA B cuts.
He had Friday's top Tufts 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.
Also on Friday, his 100 backstroke leg of 49.51 to lead off the 400 medley relay broke his year-old school record of 49.65 and was an NCAA B time. The finish was 1.69 seconds faster than the 51.34 B qualifier.
The 400 MR was Tufts' top relay at the meet, closing Friday's action with a school record and NCAA B time of 3:23.20. The foursome was 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.
The top Tufts finish on Saturday was Winget's in the 100 backstroke. He finished in 50.04 seconds to tie for third in the final. He capped his effort on Sunday with a 1:48.37 school-record and NCAA B mark in the preliminaries. That topped his own 1:49.53 from last season and the 1:53.27 qualifying standard. He went on to take fourth in the final (1:49.31).
Tufts had its best day on Sunday, when they set two school records and posted six NCAA B times. Ciliv did both in the 200 breaststroke with a 2:04.63 in the prelims. That was over two seconds faster than the previous Tufts mark of 2:07.31 set by Chris Vorlicek in 2009, and it was two seconds under the 2:06.63 NCAA B mark. Ciliv placed seventh in the final (2:04.74). He also earned a B cut on 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. However, 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.
Four Jumbos swam B qualifiers in Sunday's 200 backstroke. In addition to Winget, freshman Panos Skoufalos (1:51.22), sophomore Luca Guadagno (1:52.37) and freshman Zachary Wallace (1:52.27) all hit the mark and finished in the top 13 for a strong scoring event by the Jumbos.
Guadagno and Wallace posted Saturday highlights for the Jumbos. In the preliminaries of the 400 individual medley, Wallace finished eighth with a school-record 4:03.97 and Guadagno was 10th (4:04.90), both NCAA B cuts. The 4:04.54 previous school record set by Vorlicek in 2009 went down. Guadagno then swam a 4:02 flat in the consolation final of the 400 IM to re-set the school record. Because he failed to reach the final, his time 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.
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). Junior Anthony DeBenedetto also hit an NCAA B time with his 1:50.98 for ninth place in Sunday's 200 butterfly. Tufts had four scorers in the top 15 of that event.
Two Jumbo relays bookended Saturday's events with good finishes. The 200 medley relay started with a 1:33.55 performed by Winget, Ciliv, Metcalfe, and 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 DeBenedetto combined on that mark.
The Jumbo 400 freestyle relay closed the meet on Sunday with a fifth-place 3:06.18 time. McElduff, Simko, Skoufalos and junior Harry Wood were the foursome. The 200 freestyle relay of Simko, Winget, Skoufalos and Wood placed sixth (1:24.48) to open the meet on Friday.
The Jumbos also received seventh-place points from freshman diver Aaron Idelson (356.30) on Sunday and an eighth-place performance (353.80) from him in one-meter on Friday.
The Tufts swimmers will now wait on the announcement of the field for the upcoming NCAA Championship in Texas March 18-21.
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