Men's Swimming & Diving Second at Closest NESCAC Championship Meet Ever

WATERVILLE, ME (February 22, 2026) - Junior Jack Nussbaum broke the school record in the 200 breaststroke as the Jumbo men's swimming & diving team finished up at the 2026 NESCAC Championships on Sunday at Colby College. Tufts placed second out of 11 teams at the meet.

The schedule for the final day of the NESCAC Championships was adjusted due to a blizzard forecasted for the region on Sunday night. Preliminaries began at 9 AM and the finals were moved up to a 2 PM start.

The Jumbos finished with a team score of 1562 points, just 37 behind conference champion Williams College (1599). The 37-point margin between the teams marks the closest NESCAC finish in the 25-year history of the event. Amherst College was the third-place team (1217).

Nussbaum broke his own school record in the 200 breaststroke today with his 1:58.97 mark for third place in the final. The previous record was his 1:59.72 from 2024. His time today is an NCAA B cut that ranks 14th nationally before results from across the country this weekend come in. It was the fourth school record that the Jumbos set at the meet,

Tufts had five swimmers score in the top 20 overall of the 200 breast. Freshman JJ Arbuckle was seventh with a 2:00.98 time in the final that is a lifetime best and puts him #3 at Tufts all-time. Freshman Seth Graber's 2:01.41 mark followed in 10th place and ranks him fourth in Tufts history. Senior Connor Townson in 14th (2:04.82) and junior Evan Wang in 20th (2:05.09) also scored.

Senior Armaan Sikka led the Jumbos in the 100 freestyle with his time of 44.19 seconds that was third in the final. His career-best mark is an NCAA B cut which ranks him #15 in Division III and #2 at Tufts. Sophomore Max Gerke's 45.14 lifetime best was 10th in the event and put him ninth at Tufts. Deep scoring by the Jumbos included junior Jan Springer in 12th place (45.57), sophomore Campbell McFall 13th (45.65) and freshman Isaac Shang 15th (45.82). In the preliminaries, Springer's 45.42 and McFall's 45.46 were both lifetime bests.

The Jumbos closed the meet today with a strong performance by the 400 freestyle A relay. Their 2:57.48 mark was the conference runner-up and stands as the second-fastest time in Tufts history. The foursome was junior Will Kaminski, Springer, Gerke and Sikka, who put together the time that is eighth-best in Division III at the moment. Tufts' team of Shang, freshman Spencer Thompson, freshman Nico Ogawa and McFall won the B final in a 3:01.00 finish.

Junior Dan Godino led two Jumbos in the top 10 for the 1650 freestyle on Sunday with his 15:57.95 time that came in sixth place. Classmate Rafae Shafi swam ninth in a 16:05.12 mark.

Freshman Aidan Cole led Tufts with a 1:50.56 in the 200 backstroke final for ninth place. Thompson, who had a 1:52.08 lifetime best in the prelims, swam 1:52.30 for 14th in the final. Sophomore Sam Harris added a 17th-place effort of 1:51.55.

Adding points in the 200 butterfly were freshman Adam Li (14th in 1:51.81), senior Nate Pfeffer (17th in 1:52.10), sophomore Timmy Brady (21st in 1:53.19) and freshman Harry Belbot (24th in 1:54.41). A 1:52.50 from the prelims was Belbot's lifetime best.

Kaminski also swam a 50 freestyle time trial where he posted a mark of 20.27 seconds that is his lifetime best, an NCAA B qualifier and ranks him fourth all-time at Tufts.

The Jumbos divers will be in action next weekend (Feb. 27-28) at the NCAA Regionals hosted by Connecticut College.