GETTYSBURG, Pa.--Swarthmore College Men's Swimming started day three of the Centennial Conference Championship only 20 points behind the leader and five-time defending champion, Gettysburg College. After an evening of tough racing, the team held their ground to finish in second place with 602.5 total points. This year's finish marks a vast improvement since last season when the Garnet finished in sixth place with 382.5 points.
The third evening began with the 1650-yard freestyle, the longest event of the weekend.
Kyle Campbell (16:56.73) led the way for the Garnet with a lifetime-best time on his way to ninth place.
Kurtis Swartz (17:08.22) finished 13th and Josh Turek-Herman (17:09.39) finished 14th with a lifetime-best time for Swartz and a season best for Turek-Herman. Campbell's swim makes him the seventh-fastest miler in Swarthmore history; Turek-Herman is the ninth-fastest.
Following the mile,
Liam Fitzstevens returned to action in the 200-yard backstroke after a conference record-setting performance in the 400 IM on Saturday night along with teammates
Ben Hsiung, and Swartz. Fitzstevens (1:49.45) won the event handily with an NCAA B-Cut and new season best time while Hsiung (1:58.42) and Swartz (1:59.71) added lifetime-best times in their morning swims for the Garnet to finish in 11th and 15th place.
The 100-yard freestyle was up next for the Swarthmore men.
Andrew Steele (48.17) swam a personal best for his Swarthmore career during the morning session and finished eighth in the finals for the Garnet. Steve Sekula (47.86) and
Chris Smith (48.29) competed in the consolation final finishing 12th and 16th; Sekula notched a season-best time in the morning session and Smith swam to a lifetime-best time, also in the morning session.
Charles Yang (48.07),
David Ranshous (48.24), and
Henry Wilson (48.57) competed for the Garnet in the morning session finishing 20th, 21st, and 25th. Yang swam a season-best and Ranshous and Wilson swam lifetime best times.
The next event of the evening was the 200-yard breaststroke, in which the Garnet had four competitors:
Jason Fu,
Alejandro Hernandez,
Jerry Gu, and
CJ Cling. Fu (2:10.21) swam his way to a fifth-place finish after a lifetime-best time in the morning session, Hernandez (2:11.98) swam to a ninth-place finish in a season-best time, Gu (2:13.34) swam to an 11th-place finish in a new lifetime-best time, and Cling (2:16.58) swam to a 15th-place finish with a new season-best time in the morning session. Fu is now the fifth-fastest 200 breaststroker in program history.
In the final individual event of the evening, the Garnet swam in the 200-yard butterfly.
Michael Lutzker (1:58.38) led the way for Swarthmore with a seventh-place finish while teammate Turek-Herman (2:04.94) finished in 16th. Both Lutzker and Turek-Herman swam lifetime best times by considerable margins in the morning session.
Kyle Campbell (2:01.46) swam a lifetime best time in the morning session for a 18th place finish - narrowly missing a swim in the consolation finals.
Following the individual events for the day, the Swarthmore men dove headfirst into the final, grueling event of the evening, the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Swarthmore A relay team of Steele, Jeff Tse, Sekula, and Fitzstevens finished second with a new program-record time of 3:07.15, a full two seconds faster than their time from one year ago. The B relay team of Smith,
Henry Wilson,
David Ranshous, and
Charles Yang swam to 10th place with a time of 3:09.92. The B relay team stands as the fourth-fastest 400-yard freestyle relay team in program history.
With the water settled and the awards distributed, the Swarthmore men had landed themselves in second-place overall. Over the course of the weekend, the Garnet men had amassed nine new program records, including all five relays, and seven conference championships. After a long, tough weekend, the Garnet men have a fitting second-place finish to add to their successful 6-1 season.
Results
