Waterville, ME – After 7 sessions of thrilling competition at the NESCAC Championships in Colby, the Williams Men's Swimming and Diving team walked away as conference champions. The Ephmen had a remarkable first full day of competition on Friday to put them 123 points ahead of Tufts in 2
nd. Williams then extended their lead through Saturday and Sunday to finish the job with 1898.5 points, winning the meet by 168 points. This marks Williams' 5
th consecutive title and 21st NESCAC title since 2001.
Williams was well-represented in all events this weekend, with Ephmen reaching podium finishes in almost every event. Notably, Williams set NESCAC records and earned titles in 4 of 5 relays. Williams finished the meet with 11 first-place finishes, 27 All-NESCAC honors, 10 pool records, 9 meet records, and 7 NESCAC records.
Jacob Grover '24, a 7-time individual NESCAC champion, won the NESCAC career high-point award.
Ev Nichol '23.5 was awarded as the career high-point runner up, for earning 3 individual NESCAC titles and 9 top-3 finishes as an Eph. Williams coaches
Steve Kuster,
Allie Clark, and
James Singewald were honored as the swimming coaching staff of the year, after receiving the same award at women's NESCACs last weekend.
Head Coach
Steve Kuster was thrilled with the results of the weekend. "These guys poured their hearts and souls into this weekend and earned all they got," he commented. "They did it together and I couldn't be prouder of them."
Tonight's events began with the top seeded heat of the 1650 freestyle. From this morning's heats,
Zach Houlton '25 and
Sam Reynoso-Williams '27 led the pack for Williams.
Sam Reynoso-Williams closed with a fiery final 50 of 25.76 to touch the wall in first at 15:51.99. This was a best time by over a second for the first-year.
Zach Houlton '25 finished second of the morning races, swimming a well-executed 15:54.77 and shaving 4 seconds off his best time. Tonight's Williams representation in the final heat was Cater Anderson '25. Swimmers from Bates and Tufts sped to the lead off the start, while Anderson maintained his pace. At the 700-mark Anderson began to out-split the competition, slowly but surely creeping up to the lead. He surpassed the Tufts swimmer at the 1200 and maintained his strength through the end of the race. Anderson soundly won the event by nearly 5 seconds with a time of 15:22.93. This was Anderson's second individual title of the meet and an 11-second drop from his previous best time. From the morning, Houlton's time ranked 6
th and Reynoso-Williams' time ranked 5
th.
Colin Kavanagh opened up the 200 backstroke for Williams in the 'C' final. The first-year ended his debut season with a time of 1:51.95, winning his heat by over a second and placing 17
th. Next, in the B-final, his classmate
Aidan Lee '27 concluded his season with a time of 1:51.98 and earned 13
th for the Ephs. Representing Williams in the 'A' final was
Gabe Lee '26 and
Charlie Venci '25. Both had phenomenal races in the morning, with Venci dropping 0.7 seconds from his best time to go 1:47.30 and Lee dropping 1.5 seconds off his best time to go 1:47.38. At night, the event was swiftly won by the defending champion Eric Lundgren from Tufts. Lee put up an excellent swim to capture his first All-NESCAC Honors in 3
rd at 1:48.14. Venci put up a strong fight and finished 8
th with a time of 1:52.02.
The 200 breaststroke was next. In the 'C' final was
Kevin Jiang '26, who shaved time off his morning swim and placed 21
st with a time of 2:06.93.
Cole Mason '23.5 competed next in the 'B' final, after dropping a second from his best time this morning. The senior placed 5
th in his heat with a time of 2:04.14, earning 13
th place in his final race for Williams.
The Grover brothers, powerhouses in breaststroke for Williams, raced in the 'A' final. The top seed from Amherst turned first at the 50.
Jacob Grover '24 caught him by the 100. Jacob held the slight edge over a competitor from Bowdoin through the 150, but the two were even in the final length. Jacob fought hard to touch the wall first by 0.24 seconds with a time of 1:58.16. This was
Jacob Grover's fourth NESCAC title in the 200 breaststroke, completing the senior's career sweep in the event.
Michael Grover '26 dropped nearly a second from his best time this morning to go 2:00.40. Tonight, Michael swam a gritty race and was just out-touched by 0.02 seconds to earn 6
th place for Williams in 2:00.52.
Kevin Whitworth '26,
Mason Green '27, and
Alex Atherton '24 raced in tonight's 'B' final of the 100 freestyle. The heat was an extremely close race, with the top four finishers touching the wall within 0.03 seconds. Atherton and Green tied for 3
rd in the heat at 45.88 to place 11
th. Whitworth earned 15
th for Williams, stopping the clock in 46.37.
The final individual event of the meet was the 200 butterfly.
Harrison Williams '26 competed in tonight's 'C' final, winning his heat in 1:52.08 and placing 17
th. In the 'B' final,
Nathaniel Tunggal '25 finished off his junior season with a 1:52.71, earning 16
th. The 'A' final was won by the defending NESCAC and NCAA champion Justin Finkel from Connecticut College, while Ethan Schreier from Tufts earned 2
nd.
Ryan Nunez '27 had an outstanding race, despite being sick earlier this week, and split an amazing last 50 of 28.66 towards a time of 1:48.65 and a 3
rd place finish. This race earned Nunez his second All-NESCAC Honors of his first conference championship.
Noah Labich '25 battled to a 1:53.23 8
th place finish to conclude his junior season for the Ephs.
To complete the 4-day long meet was the 400 freestyle relay.
Mason Green '27 led off the 'B' relay in 45.29, dropping 0.5 seconds from his best time and beating the other relays by over a second.
Kevin Whitworth '26 dove in to take the second leg, speeding into a to 45.40 in his final race of the season, before
Barrett Heritage '25 took over blazed to a 44.93. As the anchor,
Alex Atherton '24 left the blocks even with Tufts in the next lane. The Tufts anchor turned ahead of Atherton at the 50, but the senior had a speedy final 25 to out-touch the Jumbos in 44.99. The Williams relay's final time of 3:00.61 was 0.09 seconds ahead of Tufts and would have placed 5
th among the 'A' relays.
The 'A' relay for Williams consisted of
Theo Randall '27,
Oliver Schalet '25,
Gabe Lee '25, and
Ev Nichol '23.5. Randall had an incredible lead-off for Williams, stopping the clock in 45.58.
Oliver Schalet '25 took over next, spliting an astonishing 44.00.
Gabe Lee '26 dove in for Williams in 3
rd, with Tufts and Bates ahead by sizeable leads. Lee split an impressive 45.25 to secure his spot at the NCAA Championship.
Ev Nichol '23.5 dove in as the anchor and swam to 44.10, touching the wall just behind the 2
nd place relay from Bates. The Ephmen's final time of 2:58.93 was almost 5 seconds faster than their seeded time, and secured a 3
rd place finish for Williams.
Once the Williams win was announced, the Ephmen accepted their trophy on the podium and took their annual victory selfie. First-year
Mason Green was then bodyslammed into the water by Head Coach
Steve Kuster, and the rest of the team stampeded to jump in. After a flurry of splashing and cheering, the team consolidated to give a resounding "EPHPRIDE!"
NESCAC Records
| 800 FR |
Alex Atherton, Carter Anderson, Ryan Nunez, Oliver Schalet |
| 200 FR |
Ev Nichol, Theo Randall, Barrett Heritage, Oliver Schalet |
| 200 IM |
Oliver Schalet |
| 400 MR |
Ev Nichol, Jacob Grover, Barrett Heritage, Oliver Schalet |
| 200 MR |
Ev Nichol, Michael Grover, Barrett Heritage, Theo Randall |
| 1000 Fr |
Carter Anderson |
| 400 IM |
Oliver Schalet |
All-NESCAC Honors
This NESCAC meet marks the end of the 2023-24 season for many on the team. Several Ephmen will qualify to compete in the 2024 NCAA Division III Championship, which will begin on March 20.
