Complete Results
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The Williams Men Swimming & Diving team opened their season tonight at home against Springfield College with a number of impressive performances. All teams in the country have competed at least once already, and some teams have been competing since early October, so times from this evening can be judged on a national scene despite it being very early on the Williams schedule. Perhaps the most impressive swim from this meet was sophomore Ben Lin's 200 Backstroke time of 1:50.97. According to collegeswimming.com, Lin's performance is the fastest 200 Backstroke time in Division III this year. But Lin was just the tip of the iceberg, as the Ephs turned in quick times across the board that will make heads turn around the NCAA.
The Ephs set the tone immediately in the 400 Medley Relay as all four Williams relays beat out the top relay team from Springfield. Freshmen Tim Kostolansky shot out in the lead with a Backstroke leg of 51.89 in his debut swim for Williams. In the end, however, it was the relay team of Nathaniel Boley, Jake Tamposi, Ben Lin and John Freeman who clocked the fastest time in the event. Tamposi's Breaststroke split of 57.19 was almost two seconds faster than any other split in the field and gave this team the edge over the other Williams relays in the event.
In the first individual event of the evening, senior co-captain Christian Gronbeck emphatically won the 1000 Freestyle with a stellar 9:33.06. Gronbeck was more than 30 seconds ahead of the next finisher in the event, and his time places him second in the nation in the 1000 Freestyle so far this year, according to collegeswimming.com. Behind Gronbeck, Ephs Adrien Downey '15, Bobby Rowledge '18 and Mitchell Towne '16 took second through fourth positions, respectively, to complete the Williams sweep. These were Rowledge's and Towne's debut swims for Williams as well.
The 200 Freestyle was the next event and was another first through fourth-place sweep for Williams. Senior Thad Ricotta and junior Jake Tamposi finished in the top two spots, and their respective times of 1:44.49 and 1:45.33 are the two fastest 200 Freestyle times in the NESCAC at this point of the season. John Freeman and Nathaniel Boley finished third and fourth for Williams.
By this point in the meet the Ephmen were rolling. The 100 Backstroke came next, and this time the top three finishes were all Williams swimmers. Kostolansky touched first with 51.75, slightly faster than his Medley lead-off time, and was followed by teammates Anthoney Tsou, in 55.43, and Zihan Su, in 55.81.
Junior Jon Yin won the 100 Breaststroke for Williams in a time of 58.57. Michael Normoyle of Springfield broke up the sweep this time as he touched the wall in second-place ahead of Williams swimmers Knox Young and Jack Ferguson.
In the 200 Butterfly, however, Williams again took the top four places. Senior Tim Lattimer got to the wall first for the Ephs in an impressive time of 1:56.46. Second place went to sophomore Grant Johnson, and third went to junior Peter McDonald, who was a scorer in this event at last year's NESCAC championships. In his debut for Williams, freshmen Spencer Alpaugh touched in fourth place with a time of 2:05.93.
The 50 Freestyle was a familiar story for Williams. The top four finishes were all Ephs, highlighted by an extraordinary first-place finish, this time from junior Alex McCarter. McCarter's time of 21.26 is the fastest flat-start 50 Freestyle so far in the NESCAC this year. Behind McCarter were strong performances from senior Alex Nanda (22.06), senior Will Brown (22.19) and junior Nels Snyder (22.38).
Continuing their strength in the sprint Freestyle events, Williams proceeded to take the top four spots in the 100 Freestyle. Tim Kostolansky clocked a 47.77 and was able to best Johnson, Ricotta and senior Chris Weihs. This display of talent and depth in the sprint Freestyle events is good news for the Williams men, who will be looking to put together some strong relays throughout the course of this season.
Next was Ben Lin's dominant 200 Backstroke performance. Lin's time tonight of 1:50.97 would have been competitive at last year's NESCACs. At that meet, Ben was able to break the NESCAC conference record, which he would go on to lower at the 2014 DIII NCAA championships. This early performance threatens that Ben Lin may not be done lowering that 200 Backstroke record when championship season rolls around again.
In the diving portion of the meet, senior Rohan Bhatt was the sole representative for Williams. In a fantastic start to his senior season, Bhatt was able to win both the 1 meter and 3 meter diving events for Williams.
The winning ways continued for Williams in the 200 Breaststroke, where Tim Lattimer led the three man sweep followed by teammates Tamposi and Downey. The 500 Freestyle was the next event, and Williams managed to take the top four spots. Will Brown came out on top for Williams, and a late surge from Alex McCarter earned him second-place over teammates Jack Ferguson and senior Dan Druckman. The top four spots were all Williams men in the 100 Butterfly as well. Junior Knox Young grabbed the top spot this time.
The last individual event of the evening was the 200 IM. Nathaniel Boley was the fastest Eph man with a time of 1:58.26. Boley was able to hold off a powerful last 50 from Gronbeck, who ended up with a time of 1:58.81. Zihan Su and Peter McDonald were the next two men to the wall to cap off a great night of individual performances from the Williams men.
The final relay was the 400 Freestyle Relay. The fastest team was the Williams squad of Nanda, McCarter, Ricotta and Johnson. McCarter had another impressive swim here, splitting a quick 46.87. But by this point in the meet, Williams had already secured its victory.
I asked coach Nick Stone what the performances from this opening meet said about the rest of the season. Stone said "I was very satisfied with the meet this evening. The team showed up and set the tone for the season to come. However, there is a lot of work to be done before the end of the season. So far the work we have put forth has led to some great swims, such as those from Ben Lin, Christian Gronbeck and others. It is fast swims like these that make me excited to see where the work we do will take us."
It was an energetic night of swimming from Williamstown. Tomorrow the Williams men and women travel to Union College to swim the Duchmen. The meet against Union begins at 1 PM.
