COMPLETE RESULTS
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA -- The Williams men's swimming and diving team finished out the regular season with a victory against Middlebury today. After a tough loss the previous evening against MIT, the Ephs rebounded well to finish the season on a high note. But before the action began the Williams seniors of the class of 2016 were honored with a short ceremony for their four years of successes representing the college.
When the swimming began Williams got out to a fast start. In the 400 Medley Relay the first two finishes belonged to teams from Williams. Then in the 1000 Freestyle junior Jack Ferguson and senior Peter McDonald took second and third, respectively. Both Ferguson and McDonald had strong second halves.
In the 200 Freestyle Williams swimmers Knox Young, Alex McCarter and Jamie Finnegan completed a 1-2-3 sweep. Then Timothy Kostolansky, John Freeman and Seth Montgomery delivered another sweep of the 50 Backstroke.
But Middlebury's Stephan Koenigsberger stole the 50 Breaststroke back for the Panthers with a time of 27.65. He was followed closely by the Williams freshman Jack Melnick.
Williams won back momentum in the 200 Butterfly, taking the top four places.
The sprint Freestyle events were closely contested. Jack McLaughlin of Middlebury challenged the Eph sprinters, but was touched out in both the 50 and 100 Freestyles. John Freeman would win the 50 in 21.84 and Alex McCarter took the 100 in 47.95.
Freshman Robby Bradford won his first collegiate event in the 200 Backstroke for Williams in a time of 1:59.62. Junior Zihan Su would grab second place in the race.
Connor McCormick won the 200 Breaststroke for the Panthers before Williams struck back in the 500 Freestyle. In that race Kenny Liu, Dan Needham and Mike Cassidy all swam strong races to beat out Midd's Michael McGean, who had earlier won the 1000 Freestyle.
The final two events were two quick ones for sophomore Tim Kostolansky. In the 50 Butterfly he would win by almost half a second before teammates Alex McCarter and Jon Yin would hit the wall in second and third. Then in the 100 IM Kostolansky returned to win the event with the blistering time of 52.29, over a second ahead of the rest of the field. His 100 IM time was also good enough to be a new Williams College record, breaking the previous mark held by junior Ben Lin by two hundredths of a second.
In the final relay Williams again would see their two teams hit the wall before Middlebury could finish their first team.
The final score favored the Ephs 186 - 94. This meet was a positive outing for Williams on the heels of a heavy loss to MIT. The class of 2016 was able to celebrate their senior day with a victory. And now the team can look forward to the NESCAC Champioships and Middlebury Invitational, the two championship meets for team members.
