LANCASTER, Pa.—On Sunday evening, for the first time ever, Swarthmore College Men's Swimming hoisted the Centennial Conference Championship trophy. Swarthmore Men's Swimming's last conference title came in 1989 as members of the Middle Atlantic Conference. It's the first Centennial Championship for any Swarthmore team since Women's Soccer won the league in 2014.
After receiving the championship trophy Sunday, the Garnet took it for a swim, plunging back into the pool along with second-year head coach Karin Colby and assistant coach Thomas Limouze to celebrate further.
The Garnet built a substantial lead in the first two days of the championships and held off the rest of the conference in day three, winning with a score of 720, 120 points more than runner-up Gettysburg College.
The Garnet continued to smash school records on Sunday and added three more NCAA B Cuts to their total.
The evening session led off with the 1,650-yard freestyle. Sophomore Michael Lutzker took third place in the event, finishing sub-16 minutes and earning a B Cut (15:58.44). Teammate Gabe Caldwell swam to eighth in the event to add 11 more points to Swarthmore's total.
In the 200 back, senior captain Liam Fitzstevens came close to his own conference record by swimming the event in 1:49 flat, earning a B Cut mark. Caldwell added another top-8 finish, coming in sixth (1:56.66).
Next, in the 100 free, Swarthmore had two finalists in the A heat, with Andrew Steele placing fourth (46.45) and Charles Yang (47.09) taking sixth.
The Garnet then placed fourth and fifth in the 200 breaststroke with Jeffrey Tse's time of 2:05.82 and Chris Smith's 2:07.17.
Lutzker scored 12 more points for Swarthmore in the 200 butterfly with a seventh-place finish (1:56.56), concluding the individual events.
For the final event of the championships, the 400 free relay, Swarthmore won the B heat as David Ranshous, Stephen Sekula, Henry Wilson and Charles Yang swam it in 3:08.46. In the A heat, Swarthmore's Steele, Fitzstevens, Smith, and Tse were seeded nearly five seconds slower than Gettysburg; however, the Garnet made things interesting and were only edged by 0.44 seconds. The Garnet's second-place time was 3:03.8 and went down as a B Cut. Steele led off the event with a new school record in the 100 free of 46.02.
Swarthmore now waits to find out how many of its B Cut times will qualify for nationals.
NCAA Division III Qualifying Standards
Complete Results
NCAA Division III B Cuts
•Michael Lutzker; 1,650 free (15:58.44)
•Andrew Steele, Liam Fitzstevens, Chris Smith, Jeffrey Tse; 400 Free Relay (3:03.8)
•Jeffrey Tse, Alejandro Hernandez, Andrew Steele, Chris Smith; 200 Medley Relay (1:31.57)
•Liam Fitzstevens; 400 IM (4:03.76)
•Liam Fitzstevens; 200 Back (1:48.61)
•Andrew Steele; 100 Fly (49.48)
• Jeffrey Tse; 100 Back (49.35)
• Jeffrey Tse; 200 IM (1:51.73)
• Jeffrey Tse, Alejandro Hernandez, Andrew Steele, Liam Fitzstevens; 400 Medley Relay (3:22.19)
• Andrew Steele; 50 Free (20.69)
