WILLIAMSTOWN - In a stellar second day at the 2016 NESCAC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships, Tufts won two conference titles on Saturday at Williams College. Freshman Kingsley Bowen was first in the 100 butterfly and the 800 freestlyle relay also won.
The conference championships in swimming events are the first for the Jumbos since Owen Rood won the 50 and 100 freestyles in 2012. It's believed to be the first time that Tufts has captured two swimming titles on the same day in their 16-year history at the conference meet.
Bowen started the day by swimming a 48.92 time to win the 100 butterfly preliminaries. That broke the Tufts record of 49.49 set by William Metcalfe in 2014. Bowen then went on to win the 100 fly title Saturday night with a 49.29 time, 0.05 ahead of Connecticut College's George Tilneac. Bowen's preliminary mark will stand as his NCAA B qualifier, which was better than the 49.70 B national standard.
The Jumbos finished the day with a 6:49.22 win in the 800 freestyle relay. Bowen led off followed by freshman Noah Cagley, sophomore Zachary Wallace, and then senior tri-captain Michael Winget as the anchor. He brought the Jumbos home in 1:41.26 over the final 200. The Jumbos finished 1.43 seconds ahead of second-place Williams College (6:50.65).
Led by the two victories, Tufts moved up into third place after two days at the meet. They had been fourth at the end of Friday. The Jumbos have scored 1,003.5 points, behind first-place Williams (1263.5) and second-place Connecticut College (1083). Fourth-place Amherst has a 957 score.
Tufts did something noteworthy in all of their events on Saturday. Four records overall were broken and seven NCAA B cuts were earned.
The 200 medley relay was the conference runner-up with a 1:31 flat that is both a school record and NCAA B time. The foursome of Winget, sophomore Morgan Ciliv, Bowen and sophomore Michael Brienza broke the seven-year old 1:31.04 previous school record established in 2009. Today's time was well within the 1:32.29 NCAA B qualifier.
In the 1,000 freestyle, freshman Brandon Jinn earned an All-NESCAC honor (top three) with a third-place 9:37.71 time.
The Jumbos recorded three NCAA B cuts in the 400 individual medley. Wallace's 4:03.13 in the preliminaries, a 4:04.05 by sophomore James McElduff also in the prelims, and a 4:06.22 by junior Luca Guadagno in the finals were all faster than the 4:07.40 B time. The Jumbos had three in the top nine during the finals led by Wallace in fifth (4:03.59).
Four Tufts swimmers scored in the top 15 for the 200 freestyle. Cagley continued to impress during his first conference meet with a 1:41.50 time for fourth place. Senior tri-captain Cam Simko scored seventh with a 1:42.79 mark.
Ciliv's 57.35 in the 100 breaststroke pre-consolation final is a new school record and NCAA B mark. It replaced James Longhurst's 57.54 from 2009 in the Tufts annals, and was below the 57.54 NCAA B requirement.
Winget broke his own record in the 100 backstroke during the morning preliminaries. His 49.13 time erased the 49.31 he set yesterday while leading off the 400 medley relay. Winget was the runner-up Saturday night in the final with a 49.46 finish.
Seven Tufts records have fallen through two days of the conference championships. Nine NCAA B cuts have been recorded. The Jumbos will look to add to those totals on the final day tomorrow. Preliminaries begin at 10 am and the finals start at 5:30 pm.
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