Middletown, CT—Entering the evening facing down a narrow eight point deficit to archrival Amherst, men's swimming and diving turned in a gutsy all around performance to retake the overall top spot in the team leaderboard by 66.5 points (1357-1290.5).
Starting the evening off right was a brilliant final leg by anchor Daeus Jorento in the 200 yd medley relay to emerge from the pack and capture first place by three hundredths of a second over second place Connecticut College and eight hundredths of a second over third place Amherst. Teammates Alex McCarter, Jake Tamposi and Thad Ricotta gave Jorento the thinnest of leads, one hundredth of a second, going into the final leg but the senior turned it on, holding off the final challenge of the rest of the field, to earn the victory in 1:31.78.
Senior Paul Dyrkacz turned in a stellar individual performance in the 400 yd Individual Medley, where he set a new pool record with a winning time of 3:57.10, nearly two seconds below the previous mark. The Ephs placed four swimmers in the championship heat out of a possible eight, showcasing their strength in the grueling event. Sophomore Timothy Lattimer earned second place in 4:00.15, while first year Knox Young was right behind in fourth (4:01.71), dropping over five seconds from his preliminary time. Senior Christopher Corbett was the final finisher in the championship heat, coming in sixth place with a time of 4:03.40. Williams would place two more swimmers in the top twelve spots, with sophomore Andrew Nemeth winning the consolation final (9th, 4:05.77) and junior Eric Liao taking twelfth (4:08.44).
Senior Tom Vieth also impressed in the 200 yd freestyle, pulling away early in the race and holding on for first place with a time of 1:38.63. Sophomore Chris Weihs (6th, 1:42.94) and first year Alex McCarter (7th, 1:43.13) also made it into a challenging final heat, while junior Sean Sutherland (10th, 1:42.29) and first year Nels Snyder (14th, 1:44.87) rounded out the Williams swimmers in the top 15 spots.
Distance specialist Christian Gronbeck cruised to victory in the 1000 yd freestyle, easily dispatching the field by over seven seconds. Gronbeck eased into the wall in 9:22.61, just over two seconds off of the meet record. Senior John Armstrong was next up for the Ephs in a strong team performance, placing third (9:35.60). Sophomore Adrien Downey dropped nearly eighteen seconds off his previous season best to take fourth (9:35.97).
In the finals of the 100 yd breaststroke first year Jake Tamposi narrowly lost out on adding to his title in the 50 yd breaststroke from the previous evening. Despite a strong second half kick, Tamposi came up just short at the wall, finishing second in 57.03. Classmate Jon Yin also swam extremely well to take fourth place (57.63). Senior Daeus Jorento dropped over a second off of his time in the preliminaries to win the consolation final good for ninth place (58.29
Senior DJ Taylor was the only Eph swimmer to make the final heat in the 100 yd backstroke, and ended up capturing fifth place with a strong swim of 50.72. Taylor received some support from teammates in the consolation final where classmate Phil Treesh (11th, 51.93), first year Seth Montgomery (13th, 52.56) and sophomore Dan Druckman (14th, 52.58) also swam well. Sophomore Thad Ricotta was the lone Williams entrant in the 100 yd butterfly, finishing fifth with a time of 49.13.
The Ephs finished off Day 2 in style by taking top honors in the 800 free relay, which was the final event of the day. Thad Ricotta led off, with Knox Young going second. Swimming third for the Ephs was standout Paul Dyrkacz. Senior Tom Vieth anchored the Eph quartet and touched the pad in 6:44.41, almost three full seconds ahead of second place Amherst.
