WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Williams Men's Swim and Dive contested Amherst College on January 10th at home. This meet celebrated the 7 seniors on the team, marking their last home meet of the season as the Ephs now turn the page and start to look towards NESCACs. The Eph Men claimed the victory by a strong margin.
To kick off the meet, the 200 Medley Relay was a tight race from 1st to 3rd with these positions only separated by .44 seconds. Williams A relay claimed first, highlighted by a monster anchor split by
Theo Randall (20.47). Williams B relay took third, with another exceptional anchor split by
Mason Green (20.55).
The Eph Men dominated on the distance side of things. In the 1000 yd freestyle,
Michael Ma, Nye Hanan,
Vincent Kim and
Henry Campbell went 1-2-3-4 against the mammoths. Ma posted a very impressive 9:51.63. Teammate Nye Hanan also dipped under the 10 minute mark at 9:54.93. In the 500 yd freestyle, the same pattern held with a 1-2-3-4 sweep.
Ryan Nunez took first with a 4:39.09. Hanan took second again, followed by Ma and Kim. Evidently, the Eph Men are strong in the longer events this season.
In a slightly shorter freestyle event, the 200, first year Sam Brozek tied with an Amherst swimmer for first. Brozek had a slow start to the race but a ridiculous second 100 to catch up to the mammoth ahead. He posted a 1:43.73, a very impressive time. Brozek also claimed gold in the 100 yd freestyle with a 46.96. He touched ahead of teammate
Theo Randall.
On his senior day,
Gabe Lee claimed first place in both the 100 and 200 yd backstroke. Lee raced hard from start to finish, showing his strength and reliability in the backstroke events.
Senior
Michael Grover was the top finisher for the Ephs in the 100 yd breaststroke, finishing 3rd to two impressive times by the mammoths. Grover posted a time of 58.37. In the 200 breaststroke, the top Eph finisher was Senior
Kevin Jiang in 4th place with a time of 2:11.80.
Yet again, Nunez claimed gold in the 200 butterfly – arguably his strongest event. He had next to no competition in this event, winning by approximately 3 full seconds.
Mason Green took gold in the 50 freestyle, with
Theo Randall in second place. This sprint duo is exceptionally strong, and the two juniors often flip flop who ends up touching first. Today it was Green by .08 seconds. In the 100, though, Randall had a strong race with a 47.43.
The 100 butterfly saw a third place finish from
Alex Gertner and a fourth place finish from
Kai Batchelor, both freshman. Finally, the 200 IM was claimed by two Amherst swimmers. However, senior
Harrison Williams finished in a 1:58.30, taking third.
In arguably the most exciting race of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay was won by Williams. It came down to the last 100 of the race, which showcased Sam Brozek. Brozek clutched up for the win, posting a 46.41. The three legs before Brozek in Nunez, Lee and Randall were also very quick at 46.4, 46.8 and 46.3 respectively.
On the boards, Junior Hoachen Liu competed for the first time this season. However, the highlight of the entire meet was Sophomore
Calder Biondi. Biondi claimed a pool record today, and almost took a team record while he was at it, narrowly missing it by only a few points. Biondi has been on fire this season.
The Eph Men challenge the Conn College Camels on Saturday January 17th at Conn. Similar to the women, the men have a heavy month of dual meet racing that they are gearing up for. A win against Amherst of 178.5 versus 110.5 today gives the Ephs some strong momentum heading into upcoming competitions.
