COMPLETE RESULTS
MIDDLETOWN, CT -- The Williams College men's swimming and diving team posted two impressive wins Saturday afternoon defeating Connecticut College and Wesleyan as they bounced back from a narrow loss at Amherst last Saturday.
The Ephs downed Connecticut College 183-105 and topped Little Three foe Wesleyan 240-46. Williams has now won all seven meets versus Connecticut College and they ran their win streak versus Wesleyan to 38.
The men quickly gained momentum with a close win on the first relay, the 200-yard medley. The quartet of rookie Ben Lin, sophomore Jake Tamposi, junior Thad Ricotta, and rookie Grant Johnson captured first with 1:33.92. The relay benefitted from a particularly strong breaststroke leg from Tamposi, who gave the Ephs the lead over Connecticut.
In the mile event, the first of the season, junior standout Christian Gronbeck continued his impressive season with a first place finish at 16:04.23. The Eph distance team rounded off the top three, with junior Adrien Downey cruising to second in a 16:47.94. Alex Flick finished third in 16:56.32.
In the 200-yard freestyle the men posted first and second place finishes from Johnson and junior Will Brown, respectively. In the 100-yard backstroke, rookies Colin Hogan and Matthew Gibson took second and third places. Hogan swam a season best 53.45 and Gibson clocked an impressive 53.63.
Tamposi notched another victory in the 100-yard breastroke event. His blistering 58.34 was good enough for first place. Tamposi finished just ahead of teammate Knox Young, who swam a 59.59.
The Ephs found another first place finish from Lin, who took first in 1:55.34 in the 200-yard butterfly, outpacing Connecticut's Stephen Skaperdas. After losses to Connecticut in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events, sophomore Alex McCarter turned the momentum in the Ephs' favor, convincingly winning the 200-yard backstroke by two seconds in 1:55.08. Next, Tamposi continued his sweep of the breaststroke events with a first place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. Tamposi outpaced his opponent on the third 50 yards to post a season best 2:09.07.
Johnson also notched a second victory on the day in the 500-yard freestyle. Even with Connecticut's Mace Molina heading into the last 4 lengths, Johnson charged past Molina to capture first in 4:44.07. The Ephs would find a solid performance from yet another rookie when Nathaniel Boley clocked a 1:58.04. Hogan finished second in a 1:58.49. Rounding out the Williams sweep of the event was McCarter with a 1:59.49 third-place finish.
On the boards, junior Rohan Bhatt swept the diving events, earning an impressive 299.48 points in the three-meter event. Rookie Andrew Lyness, making his debut on the three-meter, captured second-place with 149.47 points.
Finally, the last realy of the night, the squad of Alex Nanda, McCarter, sophomore John Hammond, and Johnson edged out their Connecticut opponents to touch first in 3:10. 10. Starting a bit ahead, Johnson was able to hold on to his lead to out-touch a charging Sam Gill.
"I was pleased with how we finished out our races today," said Head Coach Steven Kuster. "We faced off well against a strong Connecticut team and an improving Wesleyan squad. In general, we had lots of bright spots, which is exciting to see so close to our championship season in February."
"Next weekend will be a huge test with a double-header against MIT and Middlebury, which should be good preparation for championship season."
The men will face off against MIT on Friday night at 4p.m at the Muir-Sameulson Pool. On Saturday, the Ephs will be home versus Middlebury. Racing starts at 1p.m.
