Amherst, Mass.-- In their toughest dual meet of the year
Williams men's swimming and diving lost to archrival Amherst by a
score of 145-98. The Ephs, despite battling hard against their
opponents, were dealt only their second loss to a NESCAC opponent
in three years, the other also coming at the hands of the Jeffs
last year. There were two bright spots for the team despite the
loss, coming in the form of two new pool records.
The first record was set by junior Tom Vieth in the
200 yd freestyle. Swimming head to head against the previous record
holder, Amherst's Ryan Lichtenfels, Vieth laid down the law by
swimming a time of 1:40.69, 39 hundredths faster then the previous
record. Vieth would also handily win the 100 yd freestyle, dropping
a time of 46.87 on his opponents, over half a second ahead of
second placed Nick Egan of Amherst. Lichtenfels' record stood for
less than a year, having been set in 2011.
The second record was set by junior Paul Dyrkacz in
the 200 yd Individual Medley. Despite trailing after the butterfly
and backstroke legs of the event, Dyrkacz would surge over the
final two, putting away two Amherst swimmers en route to victory
with a time of 1:53.27. His swim lowered the previous mark, set by
Pohorylo of Amherst in 2004, by 1.18 seconds.
Despite many other gutsy swims throughout the afternoon, the
Ephs would only win one other event in the meet, the 400 yd
freestyle relay. The team of first year Will Brown,
alongside juniors Dyrkacz, Vieth, and Philip Treesh
finished in a time of 3:08.67, over two seconds quicker than the
'A' relay squad from Amherst.
Without question the most exciting event of the meet was the 50 yd
freestyle, which saw all six swimmers place within two tenths of
each other. Amherst's Tyler Hampton won the event in a time of
22.08. Williams junior Graham Righi
was second (22.13), while Amherst's Nick Egan was third (22.14).
First year Will Brown from Williams was fourth (22.16), while
Connor Sholtis of Amherst was fifth (22.21). Williams junior Daeus
Jorento was sixth (22.28).
Eph head coach Steve Kuster noted, "this is the biggest defeat
at the hands of Amherst in my 13 years. The thing is we swam and
dove very well today, which will give you some indication of
how
good Amherst was."
"The meet was certainly much closer than the score would indicate,
but in all the close races Amherst was just a step ahead of us, and
in the races that weren't close they were several steps ahead of
us. There were 23 different finishes for points that were decided
by less than a second -- several by less than half a second.
The difference between first and sixth place in the 50 free was 2
tenths of a second."
"It was a great meet with some unbelievable swimming, it's just
never fun to finish on the losing end. Hats off to Amherst, they
were as good as I have ever seen them today. They have
clearly established themselves as the favorite to win the NESCAC
Championship. I know we have a good team, but If we want to
be a factor in that meet we've got lots to accomplish in the next
month and a half."
The Ephs are now 3-2 on the year, and will next travel to
Wesleyan on January 14th to take on both the host
Cardinals and the Tufts Jumbos in a NESCAC tri-meet.
