Men’s Swim takes 4th
Best finish in team history at nationals
The MIT Men’s Swimming team competed at Division III Nationals last weekend. Five swimmers, as well as five relay teams, earned All-American finishes, as the Engineers took fourth overall, the best finish in program history.
Wyatt L. Ubellacker ’13 set an MIT record with 7 All-America honors, awarded to the top eight finishers in each event. The sophomore’s best finish was in the 100-meter butterfly, where he took third overall, setting new MIT and NEWMAC records in the process with a time of 48.24 seconds. Ubellacker also earned All-America in the 50 free with a fifth-place finish and in the 100 free with an eighth-place showing, as well as in four of the relays.
All three freestyle relays set MIT and NEWMAC records while earning All-America honors. The 400 free relay team, consisting of Ubellacker, Anthony Chen ’13, William C. Dunn ’14, and Craig B. Cheney ’14, placed second overall in 2:59.65, the best result for an MIT relay and only the second time MIT Men’s Swimming has had a runner-up showing. The 200 free relay team (Dunn, Cheney, Ubellacker, and Brett L. Boval ’12) took fourth place in 1:21.61, and the 800 free relay team took eighth, setting the school and conference mark at 6:42.36.
Dunn, the NEWMAC rookie of the year, set new school and conference records in the 100 and 200 freestyles. Dunn earned an All-America swim with his fourth-place finish in the 100 free and an All-America honorable mention, given to 8th through 16th place, with a victory in the consolation heat of the 200 free. With his time, he would have placed third in the championship heat. Dunn also took 13th in the 50 freestyle and was a member of four relay teams.
Cheney, Michael J. Liao ’14, and Toomas R. Sepp ’11 all earned recognition for their performances at Nationals. Sepp earned All-America honors with a fifth-place finish in the 100 fly and took 15th in the 200-yard event. Cheney finished 16th in the 100-yard freestyle and earned All-America standing in four of the relay teams. Liao took honorable mention with a 16th-place showing in the 200-yard breaststroke.
The other two relay teams, the 200 and 400 medley relays, each took home All-America honors as well. Ryan N. TerBush ’12, Liao, Dunn, and Ubellacker placed eighth in the 200 medley relay, and TerBush, Liao, Cheney, and Ubellacker took fifth in the 400 event.
The Engineers won three swim-offs, needed to break ties in qualifying heats. Sepp earned a spot in the championship of the 100 fly, and Ubellacker did the same in the 100 free. Cheney earned his spot in the consolation round of the 100 free with a swim-off victory.
For the men, their fourth-place finish was the school’s best-ever result in the NCAA Championships, outdoing the 1982 squad that placed seventh out of 48. They amassed 224 points, tying with Williams and trailing just Denison, Kenyon, and Emory. Tech’s men improved on results from the past two seasons after placing eighth of 61 in 2010. A year before, they took ninth in a 57-school field.
Denison won the men’s title, breaking a streak of 31 straight years that Kenyon has lifted the cup. Denison edged the Lords by one point, 500.5 to 499.5.