On the final day of the men’s NESCAC championships, the men of Williams held onto the lead they had slowly built over the past two days, and finished 99 points ahead of second place Amherst. The win came along with four additional individual victories of seven events contested tonight.
The first event of the night went to Eph Chris Gronbeck who posted an NCAA B cut in the mile to win with a 15:39.53. That’s well under the 15:51.96 that it took to qualify in the mile last year for the NCAA meet. In second and third place, also with a B cuts were Amherst’s Parker Moody (15:50.17) and Amherst freshman Connor Haley (16:04.16). Including those two, Amherst had four athletes top eight in the mile to Williams’ one, and six to William’s five in scoring positions.
Nathaniel Boley, a freshman for the Ephs, came in to win the 200 backstroke with a B cut of 1:48.23. Loring Bowen of Connecticut placed second with a 1:48.66. In third from the Ephs was Benjamin Lin, also a freshman. Lin’s 1:48.87 in finals was also good for a B cut, but his morning swim of 1:47.25 was even better – and would have won the event. All three men were under the time that was invited in the 200 backstroke last year. From the C heat, Seth Montgomery of Williams dropped three seconds to make a B cut time of 1:52.49 and won the heat.
Conn senior Sam Gill took home the trophy in the men’s 100 freestyle, along with posting a B cut in finals. His prelims time (44.82) is more likely to be invited than his final time of 45.14 would have been. Second from Amherst was junior Connor Sholtiz posting a 45.30 in finals for another B cut. Rounding out the B cut selection was Drew Andre from Conn whose 45.53 made the third and final cut of the event.
Williams climbed back on top in the 200 breaststroke with Tim Lattimer taking the victory with a 2:01.73. His time was about a second off the pool record set in 2011 by Dyrkacz of Williams, who also holds the NESCAC record in the event. Lattimer’s time was an NCAA B cut, as were the top six times of the event. SEcond place went to Gregory Han of Amherst, a freshman who dropped over a second from prelims to finals to put a 2:03.85 on the board. Conn’s Kirk Czelewicz posted a 2:04.72 for third.
Yet another Eph returned to the top of the medal stand during the men’s 200 butterfly. Thad Ricotta put up a new pool record, and just missed breaking the meet record set last year. Ricotta’s 1:48.57 is well under the NCAA B cut standard as well as the 2013 invited time. Behind him came two Amherst swimmers, the only others under the 1:50 mark. Tyler Bulakul and Jeff Anderson took second and third, respectively, with times of 1:49.19 and 1:49.33.
On the final diving event of the meet, Tufts stacked the deck with three athletes. Matthew Rohrer and Johann Schmidt, a freshman-senior combo, went 1-2 on three meter. Rohrer scored 533.70 points, while teammate Schmidt put up a 5:24.45 to take the runner up spot. From the preliminary rounds, Brett Gurman also of Tufts qualified ninth and earned the team 20 points, in doing so. Third finisher in the finals round was Colin White from Amherst, who owns the pool record (534.55). White scored 515.95 points.
The final event of the night saw not Amherst or Williams at the top of the pedestal but Conn with the dynamite team of Bowen, Michael Fothergill, Andre and Gill posting a 3:01.37 to break the pool record and finish less than two tenths off the meet record established in 2010 by Middlebury. Almost four seconds behind was Amherst finishing with a B cut time of 3:05.09. Third went to Williams in 3:06.02.
Final team scores:
Williams 1849, Amherst 1750, Connecticut 1468, Tufts 1147, Bowdoin 777.5, Bates 777, Middlebury 739, Hamilton 458, Colby 389, Wesleyan 377.5, Trinity 352
For complete meet results, click here.
