Eph Men's Swim and Dive Open Season with Win over Springfield

COMPLETE RESULTS

Springfield MA. - Williams men's swim and dive opened the season last night with a victory over Springfield college with a final score of 188 to 107. The Ephmen won 15 out of 16 events including 2 dive events, 2 relays, and 11 individuals. 

The team started the season with a dominant 400 medley relay performance in which the Ephs placed first, third and fourth. Timmy Page '23, Jacob Grover '24, Zeb Hart '23, Quinton Hastings '24 posted the top time of 3:29.94. They bested the second place team by 4 seconds, much of which can be attributed to Grover's 57.30 split, the fastest in the event by over 3 seconds.

Ephmen further demonstrated their strength in the first individual event: the 1000 free. Michael Ma '26, Zach Houlton '24, and Alex Atherton took first, second, and third, respectively. Ma, a first-year, took the event with a 9:54.17 in his debut swim for the Ephs.

The team swept the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events. Quinton Hastings took the 50 with a 21.79, Oliver Schalet '25 took the 100 and 200 in 47.05 and 1:43.81, and Alex Atherton won the 500 4:52.62. Schalet was closely followed by Gabe Lee '26 in the 100 and Harrison Williams '26 in the 200.

The Ephs have always had a strong backstroke contingency and this meet showed that this year is no different. The backstroke races showcased the team's depth in the stroke with 1, 2, 3 finishes in both the 100 and 200. Nick Whitcomb '23 won the 100 in 52.66, trailed by Charlie Venci '25, and Ev Nichol '23.5. Harrison Williams took the 200 closely followed by Venci and Timmy Page.

The 200 IM is historically also a strong point for the Ephs. This weekend, Oliver Schalet won the 200 IM in a 1:57.37 with a breaststroke split of 32.56, the fastest in the field by 2 seconds. Nathaniel Tunggal '25, Noah Labich '25, Cole Mason '23.5, Kevin Jiang '26, and Dylan Taylor '25 took spots 2 through 6 behind Schalet for a 1 to 7 sweep. 

Divers Kobe Tray '23 and Benjamin Shapiro '23 represented the Ephs in the 1 meter and 3 meter diving events. Despite it being the first meet of the season, they both had incredible performances. Tray claimed first in both events with 365.33 points in the 3 meter and 320.40 points in 1 meter. 

Though in-season butterfly swims are notoriously brutal, the Ephmen took these races in stride and battled it out. Labich won the 100 butterfly in 52.11 followed by Sullivan in 3rd, Carter Anderson '25 in 4th, Hastings in 5th and Jacob Silberman '23 in 6th. Tunggal, Labich, and Mason took 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in the 200. 

Distance freestylers Alex Atherton and Sasha Shashkov '23.5 went 1-2 in the 500 freestyle in 4:52.62 and 4:47.89 followed by Cole Mason with a 5:11.16.

The Ephmen swept the 200 breaststroke led by Jacob Grover with a 2:08.37. Kevin Jiang finished second in 2:14.58, followed by Dylan Taylor in 2:19.46. Jiang won the 100 breaststroke by 1.5 seconds in 1:00.58 and Tate Chutkow '25 and Silberman finished 3rd and 4th, respectively.

The most exciting event of the night was the 400 yard freestyle relay. The Williams College B relay of Whitcomb, Houlton, Lee, and Hart won the event in 3:11.69. The C and A relays finished 3rd and 4th with times of 3:14.09 and 3:16.52. The event was close and came down to the final swimmers.

The Ephs will compete against Union for their first home meet on December 3rd at 1pm.