GETTYSBURG, Pa.—For the second time in program history, Swarthmore College Men's Swimming captured the Centennial Conference Championship, winning the 2019 title on Sunday at Gettysburg College. The Garnet scored 845.5 points, out-scoring runner-up Gettysburg by 215.5 points.
Swarthmore has won both of its Centennial titles in head coach Karin Colby's four-year career with the Garnet, having last hoisted the Centennial trophy in 2017.
Swarthmore won the two individual awards as well, with Most Outstanding Performer going to senior Jeffrey Tse and Most Outstanding Rookie going to freshman Jeremy Rockaway. Tse is just Swarthmore's second Most Outstanding Performer and the first since Mike Dudley in 2003. Rockaway is the second Most Outstanding Rookie for Swarthmore in as many years, following up teammate Alec Menzer's reception of the award.
Tse won three individual gold medals, winning each individual event he competed in, the 100 back, the 100 fly, the 200 IM. He also set an NCAA B Cut time in the 100 breaststroke time trial (56.17 seconds) … He also won gold in the 200 medley relay, the 400 medley relay and silver in the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay.
Rockaway won gold in the 400 IM and 200 fly, bronze in the 200 IM, and was part of the gold-medal winning 400 medley relay team.
The Garnet entered Sunday night's finals with a sizable lead and warded off any gains by the schools chasing them. Swarthmore opened the final session with gold and silver medals, and B Cut times, in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Freshman Tom Ward completed the longest swim in the championship in 15:42.82, a new school, pool and championship meet record. Senior Michael Lutzker claimed second with a time of 15:49.95.
In the 200 backstroke, Swarthmore had top-eight finishes from freshman Dylan Torrance and Greg Kalminskii, a junior in his first semester on the team. Torrance finished in fourth (1:52.80) and Kalminskii in fifth (1:53.43). Senior Doug Leonard finished 14th for three more Swarthmore points.
Alec Menzer took bronze in the 100 free (46.21) and Ethan Bergmann added seven points with a 10th-place swim.
The Garnet positioned two swimmers in the top-three spots on the podium for the 200 breaststroke. Senior Chris Smith earned silver in 2:05.28 and freshman Horace Shew won bronze in 2:05.98. Luke Wang and Jerry Gu finished in 13th and 14th place, respectively.
Rockaway, as mentioned early, won gold in the 200 fly with a time of 1:51.68. Ward and Jeffrey Mun came in seventh and eighth place, and Raveesh Koul took 13th.
The Garnet closed out the championship with a silver medal in the 400 free relay. Alec Lawless, Bergmann, Menzer and Tse swam an NCAA B Cut and school record time of 3:02.91.
Swarthmore now has its sights set on sending swimmers to the NCAA Championship in Greensboro, N.C. beginning on March 20.
RESULTS
