WILLIAMSTOWN – The Tufts University men's swimming & diving team's 200 freestyle relay broke conference, meet, school and pool records on Friday night at the 2020 NESCAC Championships.
Tufts' foursome of senior tri-captain Costa Camerano, freshman Peter LaBarge, junior JJ Batt and senior Roger Gu timed a 1:20.35 as the Jumbos won the NESCAC 200 free relay for the second straight year. The time lowered the NESCAC conference and meet record that Tufts had won with last year (1:21.21) and was better than the school mark of 1:20.66 that was set at the NCAA meet last March. Tonight's finish is an NCAA B cut.
Gu also won the 50 freestyle for the third straight year with a time of 19.96 seconds in tonight's final. He had established a meet record with a 19.78 in the preliminaries Friday morning, which erased his 19.89 from the conference championship last year. It's the fourth individual conference title for Gu, including the 100 free last season. The 19.78 from today's preliminaries stands as his NCAA qualifying mark for 2020.
The Jumbos are second as a team after Friday's events, totaling 749.5 points. They trail only Williams College (832.5), and have healthy leads on third-place Amherst (602) and fourth-place Bates (419).
Senior Matt Manfre broke the Jumbos' 10-year old record in the 50 breaststroke while finishing as the runner-up on Friday. His 25.49 in the preliminaries was better than James Longhurst's 25.82 from the 2009 NESCAC meet, and then Manfre lowered it to 25.34 in tonight's final. Freshman Luke Isayiw added a strong fifth-place finish in the event (26.10).
Tufts had three swimmers score in the top four of the 50 freestyle. Behind Gu, LaBarge was third in 20.40 seconds and Camerano tied for fourth at 20.81 seconds. LaBarge's time is an NCAA B mark.
Jumbos went 3-4 in the 50 backstroke with sophomore Nate Tingen (22.85) and freshman Joshua Balbi (22.94). They were both also a part of the 400 medley relay that placed third with a 3:17.90 NCAA B time. Tingen led off, followed by sophomore Tar Tar Jarusinchai, Balbi and Gu.
Camerano and Batt were fourth and fifth in the 50 butterfly with 22.43 and 22.48 marks, respectively. Jarusinchai had registered the best 200 individual medley time of the preliminaries with a 1:50.33 for an NCAA B mark, then was fourth in the final (1:52.57). Junior John Koster was behind him in seventh (1:53.49).
The Jumbos' three freshman divers had a strong first showing at NESCAC's. Zach Lawrence scored foruth with 423.60 points, Matthew Langley placed seventh at 343.40 points and Kai Renshaw was eighth (341.05). Tufts also had three in the 500 freestyle final Friday night with junior John LaLime finishing fourth (4:33.46), junior Tyler Tatro in seventh (4:36.39) and freshman Evan Szablewski eighth (4:37.71).
The NESCAC meet hosted by Williams College continues on Saturday with preliminaries at 10:00 am and the finals beginning at 5:50 pm.
