Men's Swimming and Diving 12/3/2011 12:00:00 AM

Williams splits tri-meet against Boston College and Fordham

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA -- The Williams Men's Swim & Dive team went 1-1 against two formidable Division I opponents on Saturday, losing to Boston College 193-107 but defeating Fordham 153-143.

"I think you have to put this meet in perspective, as we were coming off a very difficult week of practice," said coach Steve Kuster following the meet. "But having said that, we competed better at this meet than we have in the past. We finished closer to BC than I expected and we beat Fordham. So it was a pretty good day."

Juniors Paul Dyrkacz and Tom Vieth were two-event winners for Williams. Dyrkacz took the 200 breaststroke in 2:07.51 and the 200 IM in 1:55.68. Vieth won the 200 freestyle in 1:43.25 and then the 500 freestyle in 4:43.72, where he was followed in second place by freshman Christian Gronbeck and in fourth place by junior John Armstrong. Armstrong and Gronbeck finished second and third in the 1000 freestyle, crucial performances given the difficulty of the meet.

In the 100 backstroke Fordham's Thomas Yi took first place in 52.58. Williams junior Phil Treesh finished third, junior DJ Taylor finished fourth, and freshman Andrew Nemeth finished sixth. Yi took the 200 backstroke in 1:53.90, by a margin of nearly 3 seconds. Taylor once again took fourth and Nemeth took eighth.

Dyrkacz took third place in the 100 breaststroke, followed in seventh by fellow Eph junior Chris Corbett. Corbett added a 5th place finish in the 200 breaststroke.

The Ephs showed depth and promise in the diving competitions. Senior Alex Long took fifth in the 1-meter and sixth in the 3-meter behind BC's Marty Long, who won both and may or not be related. Freshman Rohan Bhatt showed up in a big way, finishing third in both competitions, and fellow freshman Kelso Stevens took second in the 1-meter, giving Williams valuable points.

This meet against scholarship Division I athletes gave Williams a healthy dose of adversity that will surely prove beneficial down the road. The men's team faces Conn College at 1pm on Sat, Dec 10, their last meet until they travel to Amherst on Jan 7.

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