MIDDLETOWN, CT (February 19, 2023) – Sophomore
Eric Lundgren won the 200 backstroke in a record-breaking performance, and the 400 freestyle relay also won its race as the Tufts University men's swimming & diving team finished the NESCAC Championships in second place on Sunday.
Competing at Wesleyan University since Thursday, the Jumbos totaled 1656.5 points for the four-day competition. Conference champion Williams College compiled a 1819.5 total. Amherst College was the third-place team (1133.5).
Lundgren broke school, meet and Wesleyan pool records with his 1:44.40 time to win the 200 backstroke tonight. He repeated as the NESCAC 200 back champion and finished the meet with school records in all three backstroke events (50, 100, 200). First-year
Jack Madden was fourth for the Jumbos in the 200 back tonight (1:49.65). Both he and Lundgren notched NCAA 'B' marks for the event.
Brian Uribe was 14th in the final (1:52.11) and
Vedant Bapna took 15th (1:53.72).
In the final event of the Championships tonight, the Jumbo foursome of
Will Stearns,
Ethan Schreier,
Armaan Sikka and
Peter LaBarge won the 400 free relay over Wiliams 2:59.54 to 3:00.56. Though the Jumbo time was a pool record and an NCAA 'B' mark, it was 0.02 off the Tufts record. The Jumbo B relay of
Emmett Adams,
Eli Houlton,
Tim Chou and
Charlie Duffy had a 12th-place time of 3:02.76 tonight.
Along with the two victories on Sunday, the Jumbos also broke two records today. In addition to Lundgren, first-year
Connor Townson set the 200 breaststroke school record twice. He did it first in the prelims with a 2:02.72, and then again with his 2:01.80 for fourth place in the final. The record is an NCAA 'B' time. The Jumbos had an impressive six scorers in the top 20 of the 200 breast. Behind Townson,
Willie Xu was ninth (2:02.70), Adams was 11th (2:03.33),
Bora Calis 13th (2:04.27),
Luke Isayiw 14th (2:04.78) and
Darrien Johnsen 17th (2:03.74).
LaBarge and Schreier were both runners-up in their events as well. LaBarge led five Jumbos in the 100 freestyle with his 44.52 NCAA 'B' mark for second, while Schreier touched in 1:47.46 for the 200 butterfly. He had posted an NCAA 'B' cut in the prelims and was second in the final.
Tufts had three swimmers in the top six for the 100 free. Along with LaBarge, Stearns was fifth in 45.20 seconds and Sikka placed sixth at 45.23 seconds. Duffy's 46.80 for 15th and
Alex Gu's 47.27 for 21st-place also scored points for Tufts. Joining Schreier in the 200 fly were
Sebastian Cai's eighth-place time of 1:53.92 and a 1:53.03 for 11th place by Chou.
The Jumbos also had good depth of scoring in the 1,650 freestyle on Sunday. First-year
Nate Pfeffer (16:10.10 for eighth) and
Evan Szablewski (16:12.19 for 10th) were in the top 10 with NCAA 'B' marks.
James Kim swam 21st (16:36.29) and Houlton placed 25th (16:43.58).
For the championship meet, the Jumbos broke school records in nearly half of the 24 total events with 11 new marks. Along with Lundgren's three, Adams and Sikka also established multiple records with two each. Sikka's performance earned him the NESCAC Rookie of the Year award.
Tufts won five NESCAC titles, including the two tonight, LaBarge in the 50 free and the 200 and 400 medley relays. The Jumbos also hit a number of NCAA 'B' marks, and will find out which of those earn spots in the upcoming NCAA Championships when the selections are announced on Wednesday.
Tufts has the NCAA Diving Regional coming up next Friday and Saturday at NYU.
--JUMBOS--
