COMPLETE RESULTS
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA— It was the last home meet of the 2014-2015 season for Williams this afternoon against Amherst College, and so was the last career home meet for the senior class.
The class of 2015 showed up for the occasion, leading their team to victory through inspiring performances, such as Christian Gronbeck's dominant 1000 Freestyle that broke the pool record held by current Williams assistant coach Gary Roberson '11. After losing this rivalry dual meet last year in heartbreak, Williams came out with something to prove. Stands were packed with students, parents and alumni from both schools as they always are when these foes meet, and the energy showed through fast times in the pool.
Williams jumped out to an early lead in the points by getting first and second places in the 400 Medley Relay. The Williams A relay of Ben Lin, Jake Tamposi, Thad Ricotta and Alex Nanda clocked in a blistering time of 3:23.51, which would have been comfortably within the top five at last year's NESCAC championships. The B relay of Colin Hogan, Jon Yin, Timothy Kostolansky and Nathaniel Boley were able to best the top Amherst relay to earn significant points for Williams from the get-go.
After Gronbeck ran away with the 1000 Freestyle in the new pool record time of 9:25.25, fellow senior Will Brown followed up with a come from behind victory in the 200 Freestyle. Brown came on strong the last 100 yards of the race as he has been doing all season, and was able to catch Amherst's Sholtis. All this momentum continued into 50 Freestyle for Williams. The Ephs came away with a 1-2-3 sweep, led by junior sprint-specialist Alex McCarter and followed by sophomore teammates Grant Johnson and Ben Lin.
The senior class continued to pave the way for Williams success as Tim Lattimer won the 200 IM and Thad Ricotta won out in an exciting 200 Butterfly race over three Amherst competitors. Times posted by Lattimer and Ricotta in their respective events this evening are some of the fastest in the NESCAC this year.
The 100 Freestyle saw another tight race, this time between McCarter of Williams and Sholtis of Amherst. Sholtis was able to get to the wall first, but Williams ended up taking three of the top four spots as Johnson and Nanda were the next two finishers.
Again in the 200 Backstroke three of the top four spots went to Williams. This time, however, Ben Lin was able to come away with the win for the Ephs in yet another impressive swim for him this season.
The last two individual swimming events in the evening were the 500 Freestyle and the 200 Breaststroke. A familiar set of senior faces came away with a pair of first place finishes for Williams. In the 500, Christian Gronbeck was back in the water to claim what will be his last home victory for Williams in a career that has seen many. Like so many before, Gronbeck won this event with a comfortable margin.
Tim Lattimer competed and won his signature event for Williams, the 200 Breaststroke, for the last time as well. A late surge from Knox Young made for a close race for second place that was decided by one one-hundredth of a second. Young was on the wrong side of that touch and ended up in third place, though he turned in an impressive time.
In his last outing on the home boards for Williams was senior Rohan Bhatt. In his specialty, the 3m board, Bhatt was able to come away with the victory, while he grabbed second place on the 1m. Back diving for Williams was sophomore Andrew Lyness, who continues to improve.
The last event of the night was the 400 Freestyle Relay. By this point Williams had already secured victory, but maybe because of the alumni in the stands, the rivals in the other lanes, or the Williams seniors competing at home for the last time, this race was just as competitive as it was last year when the outcome of the meet depended on it.
On the Williams A relay, seniors Thad Ricotta and Alex Nanda had their last home swims, while on the B relay was Chris Weihs, on the C relay was Andrew Nemeth and Will Brown, and on the D relay was Daniel Druckman. Even though Amherst won the event, Williams relays fought hard and earned second through fourth places.
Williams came away from the night with a win, the score 156-78.
In addition, all swimmers wore pink caps this evening in support of Breast Cancer awareness. This was part of an awareness event that multiple teams took part in, including the women's swim team in the pool and the men's basketball team who played Amherst across the hall in the Chandler Gym.
