Men's Swimming & Diving Finishes In Top 10 For Fourth Time in Last Five NCAA Meets

GREENSBORO, NC (March 18, 2023) - Sophomore Eric Lundgren in the 200 backstroke and the 400 freestyle relay both placed fourth as the Tufts men's swimming & diving team had a strong finish to the 2023 NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday.

Led by those two finishes, the Jumbos scored 48 points today and finished the meet with a 148.5 score. That was good enough for 10th place, the fourth time in the last five NCAA meets that head coach Adam Hoyt's Tufts team has been top 10.

To close the meet, Tufts' 400 freestyle relay foursome was outstanding with a school-record 2:58.77 time for fourth place. The group of Peter LaBarge, Emmett Adams, Will Stearns and Armaan Sikka achieved All-American status (top eight) and erased the former 2:59.52 record from 2020 of which LaBarge part. Tonight's finish was the best for a Jumbo relay since the 200 free relay was runner-up in 2019.

Lundgren's fourth in the 200 back on Saturday is his NCAA career best and he did it with a 1:44.76 time. He was seventh in the meet last season. Freshman Jack Madden was also top 20 nationally in the event today with a 1:48.72 for 19th in the preliminaries.

Also on Saturday, LaBarge had an honorable mention All-American finish of 14th in the 100 freestyle with a time of 44.85 seconds. In the prelims of the event, Sikka was 17th and just missed the consolation finals with his time of 45.11 seconds. Ethan Schreier was 34th in a 46.27 prelim time.

Tufts also had freshman Nate Pfeffer in the 1650 freestyle today where he was 20th nationally with a 16:27.77 finish.

Eight Jumbos won All-American and honorable mention awards at the NCAA meet this week. Lundgren and LaBarge both led Tufts with five and Schreier had four, Sikka and Stearns three, Adams two and Charlie Duffy and Pfeffer one.