WILLIAMSTOWN – The Tufts University men's swimming and diving team opened their 2019-20 season in a quad meet with Williams, WPI, and Wesleyan. The Jumbos earned wins over WPI 251-68 and Wesleyan 259-56, but fell to Williams 175-138.
The Jumbos grabbed the top three positions in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The winning unit was made up of senior Roger Gu, junior JJ Batt, and freshmen Dylan Brown and Peter LaBarge. With a 1:24.91 time they finished just under four seconds ahead a second Tufts team consisting of senior tri-captain Costa Camerano, junior Noah Zhang, sophomore Nate Tingen, and freshman Otto Laakso (1:28.14). A third Jumb foursome was right on their heels finishing 0.58 off the second mark.
Sophomore Tar Tar Jarusinchai grabbed a second-place finish in the 50-yard breaststroke (27.23). He also finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke (59.45), just 0.27 off the winning pace. The sophomore won the 200-yard breaststroke (2:10..72) by nearly six seconds over teammates Michael Gregorace (2:16.29) and Alexander Burnam (2:18.39)
Freshman Joshua Balbi paced the Jumbos in the 50-yard butterfly with a fifth-place finish in his collegiate debut. His 23.70 was just .61 off the top time. Balbi finished third in the 100-yard butterfly with a 52.07. Tingen grabbed a second-place finish in the 50-yard backstroke (24.16) while Balbi finished in fourth, again within one second of the top time (24.46). Tingen (53.14) also finished second in the 100-yard backstroke. Junior Nathan Mitchell placed fourth in the 100-yard backstroke (54.49). Tingen and Mitchell swam third and fifth in the 200-yard backstroke with times of 1:56.49 and 1:58.62, respectively.
Gu earned the victory in the 50-yard freestyle as his 20.55 was nearly a second ahead of the second-place finisher. Gu finished third in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:45.48. He won the 100-yard freestyle at 46.04, over one second faster than the second finisher. Brown earned third in the 50-yard freestyle (21.78) and 100 freestyle (47.70). Junior Tyler Tatro (1:48.43) finished seventh in the 200-yard freestyle.
Gregorace, freshman James Kim, and junior Dawson Stout grabbed fourth, fifth, and sixth in the 400-yard IM, with 2:16.29 as Gregorace's runner-up time. Freshman Sebastian Cai and senior tri-captain Trevor Serman finished second and fourth in the 200-yard butterfly. Cai was just .23 off the winning pace at a 1:57.75 finish.
In diving, freshman Zach Lawrence earned the top score at 303.53 in the 3-meter event. Classmate Kai Renshaw finished third. Renshaw bested Lawrence in the 1-meter dive as they finished second and third in the event.
The Jumbos head to Brandeis University on Sunday, November 24th, for a 1 pm start.
