MIDDLETOWN, CT (February 17, 2023) -- The Tufts University men's swimming and diving team broke four school records on Friday in the second day of action from the 2023 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championships, hosted by Wesleyan University.
Tufts finished the day second overall as a team with 574 points, trailing just Williams College and its 677.5 points. Amherst College is in third with 408.5 points.
The Jumbos first school record of the day came in the 50 breaststroke in the preliminaries, as sophomore
Emmett Adams swam a 25.32 to finished third in the morning swim. Adams topped the previous school record of 25.34. Adams qualified for the "A" final, while
Willie Xu also was in the top eight after prelims with a 25.63.
Senior
Luke Isayiw qualified for the "B" final with a time of 25.66, while sophomore Darrien Johnson was 11th overall in prelims with a new time of 25.73. In the final, Adams took sixth place with a 25.38 while Xu improved his time to 25.55 to finish eighth in the "A" final. Isayiw won the consolation final with a time of 25.64, and Johnson took 13th overall after swimming a 26.22.
The 50 butterfly was next on the docket, and
Armaan Sikka qualified for the championship final with a time of 22.23. Junior Timothy Chou also earned a spot in the consolation final with a season-best time of 22.68. In the finals, Sikka broke the school record with a 22.01, taking fifth place overall. Chou was 11th overall and third in the consolation final after improving his prelim time by 0.06 seconds with a 22.62.
The Jumbos had four swimmers make the 500 free finals at night, led by
Eli Houlton with his time of 4:37.09 for 12th place. Houlton would improve in the consolation final, swimming a 4:36.25 for 11th place, and
Evan Szablewski also moved up from preliminaries with a 4:36.27 to take 12th place.
The Jumbos would have two swimmers earn a place in the championship final in the 50 backstroke, as
Eric Lundgren broke the school record in the prelims after swimming a 22.21 to break the previous record of 22.24. First-year
Jack Madden was right behind Lundgren with a 22.96, and
Vedant Bapna also moved into the "A" finals with a 23.31.
In the night swim in the 50 backstroke finals, Lundgren was just off his morning record with a 22.24 at night to take second place, while Madden improved his time in the morning to post a 22.92 for fourth place. Bapna was eighth after recording a time of 23.71.
First-year
Connor Townson posted a collegiate-best time of 1:51.16 in the 200 IM preliminaries to qualify for the championship final with the seventh-best time in the morning. Sophomore
Ethan Schreier just missed out on the "A" final, as he was ninth in the prelims with a 1:51.82.
Brian Uribe and
Charlie Duffy also earned a spot in the pre-consolation final.
In the finals, Townsend swam a NCAA "B" cut time of 1:50.73 to earn sixth place overall, and Schreier won the consolation final after swimming a 1:51.68. Uribe was 19th with a time of 1:53.31, and Duffy also was 21st with a 1:53.48.
The only individual title of the night for the Jumbos came in the 50 freestyle, as Peter Labarge swam a NCAA "B" cut time of 20.18 seconds to qualify third for the championship final. Junior
Will Stearns also posted a season-best time of 20.84 seconds to qualify for the "A" final as well.
In the finals, Labarge charged ahead to finish as the only swimmer on the day to break 20 seconds as he touched the wall with a 19.93. Stearns also cut time off his season-best time with a 20.72. In the consolation final,
Alex Gu recorded a 21.02 to take third in the heat and 11th overall.
The Jumbos would pick up another win and school record in the final swimming event of the night, as the 400 medley relay team of Lundgren, Adams, Schreier and Labarge posted great time of 3:13.78 for the win. The time was a NCAA "B" cut time, while also breaking the previous school record of 3:16.08 and setting a new pool record.
In the 1-meter diving preliminaries,
Zach Lawrence qualified for the finals with a 11-dive score of 408.55 while
Jeremy Lawrence also earned a spot in the finals with a new score of 391.05. In the championship finals,
Zach Lawrence finished as the league runner-up with a "B" cut score of 447.05.
Jeremy Lawrence also improved his score of 402.90 in the finals to take fourth overall.
Saturday will feature the 100 butterfly, 400 IM, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, 1000 freestyle, 3-meter diving and 200 medley relay in the third day of action at the 2023 NESCAC Championships.
--JUMBOS--
