MEDFORD, Mass. – The Tufts University men's swimming and diving team set five program records and continue to lead after the second day of competition at the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championships Saturday night at Bowdoin.
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| Bowen set two program records on Saturday, one in a relay and one individually. |
Adding to their four records set yesterday, the Jumbos have now set nine new program-best marks this weekend. They currently sit in first place with 1,173 points. Williams and Amherst sit in second and third with 1,161 and 1,057.5 points respectively. Tufts has never won a NESCAC Championship.
Each morning the teams compete in preliminary races where the top eight finishers in each event qualify for the finals. The athletes who finish nine through 16 compete in the consolation finals. At the end of the day, the top three finishers in each event earn All-NESCAC honors. Competitors can also qualify for the NCAA DIII Championships with their times at the conference meet. If they make an NCAA A cut, they will receive automatic NCAA qualification. If they make the NCAA B cut, they will be entered onto a provisional qualifying list, which will make them eligible to qualify, but will have to wait to see how their time stacks up against the rest of the country before qualification is made official.
The Jumbos earned two first place finishes on Saturday. One coming in the 400 IM when James McElduff won with a time of 3:56.65 (32 points) that not only made the B cut, but also set a program record, breaking his own mark from last year. Two other members of the team made the B cut in the race as well, with Zach Wallace claiming fourth with a 4:00.63 (26 points) and John Koster coming in fifth with a tie of 4:01.89 (25 points).
Kingsley Bowen also won a race while breaking his own program record. His coming in the 100 backstroke with a time of 48.22 (32 points), which was good enough for the B cut. Nathan Mitchell came in sixth in the race with a 50.86 (24 points).
Tufts had three second place finishes on the night, two in relays and one individually. The first of the two relays was the 200 medley relay with a team of Bowen, Matthew Manfre, Costantino Camerano, and Roger Gu setting a program record time of 1:29.92 (56 points) and making the B cut. The second was the 800 freestyle relay where Wallace, Noah Cagley, Tyler Tatro, and McElduff finished in 6:42.33 (56 points), also making the B cut. The individual second place was earned by John LaLime in the 1000 freestyle where he set a program record with a time of 9:27.01 (28 points). Brandon Jinn finished in sixth with a 9:36.23.
Tatro also grabbed a third place finish in the 200 freestyle with a program record time of 1:40.15 (27 points), making the B cut. Cagley came in sixth with a 1:40.74 (24 points). Gu competed in the consolation final of the event, winning it to claim ninth overall, in 1:40.15 to make the B cut and also tie the record set by Tatro. JJ Batt claimed eighth place in the 100 butterfly with a time of 50.68 (22 points).
The final day of competition will be tomorrow with preliminary races beginning at 10 a.m. and the last round of finals starting at 5:30 p.m.
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Written by Curtis Stoychoff, Athletic Communications Intern
