The Amherst men’s swimming and diving team traveled to Bowdoin this past weekend to race in the NESCAC championships.
In the first event, the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Jeff squad of Connor Sholtis ’15, Conor Deveney ’15, Alex Dreisbach ’17 and Tyler Hampton ’15 finished third. The Jeffs also cashed in with the 500-yard freestyle, as seven swimmers accrued 110 points, led by Parker Moody ’14 and first-year Connor Haley, who both earned NCAA ‘B’ cuts.
The 200-yard IM was a perfect representation of the rivalry between Amherst and Williams, as 11 out of the 24 swimmers who made it to the finals were either a Jeff or an Eph. First-years, Greg Han and Reed Patterson, finished fourth and eighth, respectively, as Han earned an NCAA ‘B’ cut.
In the 1-meter dive, Colin White ‘14 racked up 536.55 points to earn second place. At the end of day one, Williams led with 636.5 points, but the Jeffs were close behind with 607.
Kicking off day two, the Jeffs finished third in the 200-yard medley relay. Three Amherst swimmers earned NCAA ‘B’ cuts in the 400-yard IM, as Jeff Anderson ’16, Han and Michael Rochford ’15 finished second, fifth and seventh, respectively. Sholtis gave Amherst its first individual event win in the 200-yard freestyle. The junior swam the anchor leg of the 800-yard freestyle relay team to give his team a comeback victory, claiming first over Williams who led for the first 600 yards.
The Jeffs entered day three down by 92.5 points to the Ephs and just 63 points ahead of Conn. In the 1650-yard freestyle, four Jeffs earned NCAA ‘B’ cuts, as Moody, Haley, Brody, and Conor McAuliffe ’14 finished second, third, fifth and eighth, respectively.
In the 200-yard backstroke, Deveney and Heise notched two more NCAA ‘B’ cuts, finishing fifth and seventh respectively. Sholtis narrowly missed out on winning his second individual event, placing second in the 100-yard freestyle, getting out-touched by a mere 0.16 seconds.
In the 200-yard breaststroke, the first-years continued to shine with Han finishing second and Patterson in fifth, both earning NCAA ‘B’ cuts. In the 200-yard butterfly, Bulakul and Anderson finished 0.14 seconds apart to earn two more NCAA ‘B’ cuts, and place second and third, respectively. In the last event of the tournament, the 400-yard freestyle relay capped off a great season as the team of Deveney, Hampton, Bulakul and Sholtis finished a close second behind Conn.’s team.
The final score of the meet read Williams 1,849, Amherst 1,750 and Conn. College 1,468. Despite falling just short of a NESCAC Championship, the Jeffs had a successful season, including a 127-115 dual-meet win over Williams.
For many team members, the season is not over, as they have qualified for the NCAA Championships, hosted at IUPUI March 19-22.
