Williams College Opens Up 57-Point Lead on Day 2 of Men’s NESCACs

Contributed by Robert Reiser.

2019 NESCAC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS – MEN’S PREVIEW

• February 21st-24th, 2019
• Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont
• Teams: Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, Williams
• Live Results

Williams College opened up a 57-point lead on day 2 of the 2019 Men’s NESCAC Conference Championship meet. Last year, they were 28 points behind after the meet’s opening day, before eventually losing to Tufts by 81 points.

Williams made their mark in the 500 free where they went 1-2-3, where their only 3 entries in the race scored 87 total points. Tufts had no swimmers in the A final, and so it took them 5 entries to score 72 points.

200 Free Relay

1. Tufts University, 1:21.21
2. Amherst College, 1:21.47
3. Bowdoin College, 1:22.60

Tufts took the 200 free relay in a new Pool, Meet, and NESCAC record behind the team of Constantino Camerano (:20.76), JJ Batt (:20.40), Lomax Turner (:20.57), and Roger Gu (:19.48), holding off the Amherst team of Jack Koravos (:20.48), Scott Romeyn (:19.83), Tristan So (:20.53), and Eric Wong (:20.63).  Gu’s anchor was the fastest split of the field. After a 6th place showing in the 800 free relay last night Bowdoin surprisingly broke the projected Amherst / Tufts / Williams top 3 relay stranglehold, finishing third behind a leadoff 20.50 leg from freshman Ted Mebust.  It was a best time for Mebust by almost seven tenths and broke the Bowdoin school record from 2011. Tufts took the B relay as well, followed by Williams and Amherst.

50 Breast

1. Sean Mebust, Amherst College, :25.54
2. Jack Melnick, Williams College, :25.58
3. Matthew Charest, Bates College , 25.83

Amherst’s Sean Mebust, brother of Bowdoin’s Ted Mebust and top seed in the 200 breast, showed his range by winning the sprint event by almost a body length.  Such a strong showing in the sprint event may mean that he is ready to take down his Amherst school 200 record of 2:00.09 and become the first NESCAC breaststroker under two minutes since Paul Dyrkacz in 2013.  

50 FLY

1. Jack Koravos, 22.05
2. Constantino Camerano, :22.12
3. Zeb Hart, :22.24

Amherst continued its win streak in the 50 fly behind junior Jack Koravos who broke the pool record from 2015.  Williams and Tufts dominated the event with each putting three swimmers in finals.

500 Free

1. James Lovette, Williams, 4:27.49
2. Jackson Karofsky, Williams, 4:28.25
3. Andrew Trunsky, Williams, 4:29.43

Williams had the top three seeds from the morning in Jackson Karofsky, Jamie Lovette, and Andrew Trunsky (in that order) and they held their places albeit in a slightly different order.  They were out fast in 1:44 / 1:45, joined by Connecticut College’s Charlie Adl in Lane 1. Adl faded in the middle, dropping back to the pack by the 350. Lovette had a lead of four tenths over Karofsky with 100 to go and they flipped together in 4:01 with Trunsky a body length behind.  Lovette held on to win followed closely by his Williams teammates. It was a perfect placing for Williams who only entered three swimmers in the event and still took the top 3 places. All three were under the 4:30.81 it took to qualify for NCAA’s last year.

Notably, Tufts took the consolation and bonus heats behind Tyler Tatro (Consoles in a B Cut time of 4:32.86), and John Lalime (Bonus in 4:35.XX).  

50 Back

1. Kingsley Bowen, Tufts University, :22.49
2. Ted Mebust, Bowdoin College, :22.59
3. Nick Whitcomb, Williams College, :22.91

Tufts University senior All-American Kingsley Bowen defended his title from 2018, just out touching Bowdoin freshman Ted Mebust who was unable to follow in his brother’s footsteps and win an event.  Williams Freshman Nick Whitcomb (brother of Wesleyan senior Maela Whitcomb) was third in an event where twelve of the top sixteen finishers were freshmen.

200 IM

1. Tar Tar Jarusinchai, Tufts University, 1:51
2. Karl Sarier, Bowdoin College, 1:51
3. Paul Leclerc, Williams College, 1:51.35

Defending champion Karl Sarier was a body length behind the field at the 50 and continued to lose ground on the leaders through the backstroke.  Tufts freshman Tar Tar Jarusinchai had a body length lead with Sarier 7th going into the freestyle.  Leclerc of Williams made a move, pulling even with Jarusinchai with 25 to go, but Sarier made his usual move in the freestyle, closing in 24.73 . . . . . . to finish second behind Jarusinchai.  None of the swimmers made the 2018 NCAA time of 1:50.66. Ninth place finisher Sean Tan of Williams (1:51.59) and tenth place finisher Joseph Kim of Tufts (1:51.74) would have finished fourth and fifth had they been in the top heat.  

50 Free

1. Roger Gu, Tufts University, :19.89
2. Scott Romeyn, Amherst College, :20.26
3. Constantino Camerano, Tufts University :20.77

Roger Gu defended his NESCAC championship in a pool record swim of :19.89, just faster than his :19.90 from the morning but behind his :19.77 from the midseason MIT Invite.  Amherst freshman Scott Romeyn was second while Tufts’ Constantino Camerano dropped .45 off his 11th place finish from 2018 to earn his second All NESCAC award of the night.  

1M

1. Mitch Ryan, Bowdoin, 465.90
2. Bennett Fagan, Amherst, 464.30
3. Michael Chirico, Middlebury, 445.90

The highly anticipated showdown between defending diver of the meet Bowdoin senior Mitch Ryan and former California state champion, Amherst freshman Tom Amsbry did not disappoint, but Amsbry stepped aside in favor of teammate Bennett Fagan.  Ryan was the top seed following prelims with a score of 487.60, just ahead of Fagan. Fagan led for most of the rounds but with 57.5 points on the final dive (including two scores of 8.0) Mitch Ryan took the win. Amsbry slid all the way to fifth after being third out of prelims, while 2018 NCAA qualifier Michael Chirico of Middlebury was third.  Colby’s Travers Losert was fourth as the top five divers met the NCAA regional score.

400 Medley Relay

1. Tufts
2. Amherst
3. Williams

Tufts is strong in the backstroke so it was no surprise that they led after that leg, but what was surprising was that rather than using 50 backstroke champion and 2018 NCAA 100 back A finalist Kingsley Bowen they used freshman Nate Tingen. Tingen delivered with a 49.57 and was followed by 200IM champion Tar Jarusinchai who split a fast 55.3.  Bowen swam fly in :47.98 and 50 free champion Roger Gu brought the relay home in :43.52. It was a meet and pool record but still off Williams’ NESCAC record of 3:13.49 from 2015. Amherst was close behind with the team of Craig Smith (:50.18), Sean Mebust (:54.47), Jack Koravos (:48.30), and Scott Romeyn (:44.01). Williams was a distant third and actually received faster backstroke and free times from their B relay

Scoring is close.  Williams used six more swims than Tufts so they expected to have a lead and they will need to perform tomorrow in order to hold onto that lead.  Amherst is solidly in third and there is a great battle for fourth between the Maine school, Colby, Bowdoin, and Bates. Colby has noticeably swum above their seeds and is having a great meet – John Connors finaled in the 50, Xander Geiersbach has been right on the school records in the backstroke, and distance ace Ryan Bedell appears to have added some speed for the shorter events.  They lack the depth of Bowdoin and Bates but have been able to hang with them so far. Bowdoin climbed from seventh to fifth based on diving alone where they placed 1-6-9-10 (in a field of 16) and may slip tomorrow without a diving event. Their highly seeded distance swimmers Williams and Komishane ended up in the bonus heat today but swam faster at night – Bowdoin will need them to place highly in their events in order to have a chance at fourth.  

Combined Team Scores – Through Event 10                      

1. Williams College                  767
2. Tufts University      710
3. Amherst College                   627
4. Colby College      435
5. Bowdoin College                 431.5
6. Bates College          394
7. Connecticut College             330.5
8. Middlebury College        315.5
9. Trinity College                 243.5
10. Hamilton College          162
11. Wesleyan University               140