MIT defends conference title
Men’s Swim & Dive hosts NEWMAC Championship
Manohar B. Srikanth
On the strength of seven first-place finishes, MIT increased its lead during Saturday’s finals session in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Men’s Swimming and Diving Championship. The Engineers raised their total to 769 points while the U.S. Coast Guard Academy maintained its position in second place with a tally of 517. Springfield College continued to rank third with 346 points.
In the 200 medley relay, MIT’s squad of Ryan N. Terbush ’12, Michael J. Liao ’14, Wyatt L. Ubellacker ’13, and Craig B. Cheney ’14 earned an NCAA B standard with a time of 1:31.85. The B relay contingent comprised of Scott A. Stephens ’14, David C. Parell ’12, Toomas R. Sepp ’11, and Anthony Chen ’13 won the consolation final in 1:34.68.
Brendan T. Deveney ’13’s time of 4:02.59 in the 400 individual medley broke the meet record set last season. Jeffrey H. Lin ’14 (4:07.96) and Remy A. Mock ’14 (4:09.50) followed in third and fourth place, respectively, while Eric J. Roselli ’11 rounded out the Engineers with an eighth-place finish (4:22.29).
Ubellacker established a new meet record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 49.15. Sepp touched the wall in 49.86, resulting in another pair of NCAA B cuts for the Engineers. MIT picked up additional points in the championship final courtesy of Kevin M. Lang ’13 (51.17, fourth place) and Brett L. Boval ’12 (51.28, fifth place).
William C. Dunn ’14 received the first NCAA automatic qualification of the meet by finishing in 1:39.69 in the 200 freestyle. In the consolation final, Michael J. Dobson ’11 finished ninth (1:43.63) while Stephens (1:44.92, 13th) and Maxwell T. Pruner ’13 (1:45.16, 14th) came in right behind each other.
In the 100 breaststroke, MIT placed four swimmers in the top eight. Liao led the way with a first-place finish and an NCAA B cut time of 56.53, while Parell followed in second place with 58.09.
The Engineers saw five athletes pick up points in the 200 backstroke. Terbush led the way with an NCAA B cut time of 51.80 for a third-place finish as Timothy J. Stumbaugh ’12 (52.36) and Brendan F. Liu ’13 (52.46) ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.
MIT closed the evening by breaking the meet record it set two years ago in the 800 free relay. The quartet of Deveney, Carlo R. Biedenharn ’14, Andrew W. Pierson ’12, and Dunn clocked in at 6:50.34, which also met the NCAA provisional qualifying standard.