WATERVILLE, Maine - The Williams College men's swimming & diving team earned its 23rd overall NESCAC Championship and seventh in a row Thursday-Sunday at Colby College.
In a meet that came down to the last session, the Ephs finished with 1,599 points and Tufts was the runner-up with 1,562. Heading into the fourth and final day of competition, the Eph men were in second place. However, they pulled off the victory after an incredible day of racing on Sunday.
The meet began on Thursday evening with the 800-yard freestyle relay, a particularly strong event for the Eph men. The team of
Ryan Nunez (1:38.15),
Aneirin Hanan (1:38.70),
Harrison Williams (1:39.17) and
Samuel Brozek (1:37.31) captured the title over Connecticut College, which finished closely behind. The evening gave the Ephs momentum heading into the first day of trials on Friday.
Friday events include the 50s of stroke in addition to the 200 IM and 500 freestyle. In the first individual event of the meet, senior
Michael Grover placed second in the 50 breaststroke, lowering his school record to 24.58 seconds.
Mason Green had an outstanding 50 butterfly afterward, just missing the podium by one hundredth of a second. Nunez captured gold in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:24.25 and Hanan followed in second with a personal-best time of 4:26.78.
Gabe Lee and
Whitman Horton had strong 50 backstroke swims, placing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Aidan Lee took third in the 200 IM with a blistering time of 1:48.89. To conclude the individual swimming, Brozek placed third in the 50 freestyle with an electric 20.01 seconds. Divers
Calder Biondi and
Haochen Liu placed second and third, respectively, on the 1-meter board.
On Saturday, the Ephs entered the competition behind the Jumbos.
Alex Gertner snuck into the A final of the 100 butterfly, finishing in eighth.
Aidan Lee and
Vincent Kim had strong 400 IM performances at the beginning of the session, taking fourth and seventh. Brozek just missed the podium in the 200 freestyle, but put up an electric 1:38.05, adding just 0.16 seconds from the morning. Grover claimed bronze in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 53.65, adding just a touch from the personal best he set in the preliminaries. Horton and
Gabe Lee also got into the A final of the 100 backstroke, finishing in fifth and eighth, respectively. On the 3-meter boards, Liu and Biondi went 1-2, which was a dominating performance to watch. Liu, despite battling an injury all year, put up 11 well executed dives to take gold.
The final day of competition saw many A final performances from the Ephs, helping them clinch the victory. Horton and
Aidan Lee placed 2-3 in the 200 backstroke, with
Gabe Lee and
Colin Kavanagh also scoring in the A final. Horton swam an outstanding race, dipping under 1:47 in a 1:46.90 after going 1:47 for the first time in the morning. Brozek finished fourth in the 100 freestyle, with
Kevin Whitworth and
Theo Randall taking seventh and eighth, respectively. Green had an outstanding swim too, winning the consolation final in 44.78 seconds. Grover finished under two minutes in the 200 breaststroke, claiming silver in his last event of the meet. Then, Nunez took the 200 butterfly decisively in a 1:46.19, while Gertner finished in sixth.
On the relay side of things, the 400 medley team placed second with a time of 3:13.62. The relay featured
Gabe Lee, Grover, Nunez and Brozek. Grover split his fastest 100 breaststroke time ever and Brozek anchored in an impressive 43.45 for the Ephs. The 200 medley relay placed third with a 1:28.24 featuring Horton, Grover, Green and Randall.
The Eph men showed a lot of heart to come out on top this weekend, and it took each and every race and individual to do just that. Biondi and Liu will now turn their heads to Regionals next weekend, looking for a place at the NCAA Championship in just under one month. On the swimming side, many of these Eph men will continue to train ahead of the national stage.
