The Williams men's swimming and diving team remains unbeaten in the 2014-2015 season so far with a tie (149-149) against Boston College.
Any meet against Division I competition poses a significant challenge and tonight was no exception, especially because several Boston College swimmers were wearing high-tech racing suits that are usually reserved for the championship season. The Ephs rallied against these high obstacles, led by fast performances from top performers such as Christian Gronbeck, Ben Lin, Tim Lattimer and Thad Ricotta, but the team's depth across all events created the point-scoring that made this meet so close and so exciting.
Coach Nick Stone is unbeaten during his interim period as head coach with this result. For the Eph's next competition against rival Amherst in January, coach Steve Kuster will have returned from his semester on sabbatical. Coach Stone commented on the team's performance this evening: "Coming into the meet, the men's team was the underdog but they did not let that stand in their way. Right from the first event they showed that they were not going down without a fight. Each event they fought to the wall and made up valuable points."
That first event was the 200 Medley Relay, in which the Williams squad of Ben Lin, Jake Tamposi, Thad Ricotta and Grant Johnson finished with a blistering time of 1:32.05. There was not a weak leg on that relay, but the Boston College "A" relay wearing their high-tech suits was able to hit the wall first. Showing their depth early, another Williams relay grabbed the third-place finish, highlighted by Tim Kostolansky's 22.84 Butterfly split.
Next up was the 1000 Freestyle, in which senior Christian Gronbeck delivered another run-away victory in a time of 9:31.40. Classmates Adrien Downey, Daniel Druckman and first-year Dan Needham finished in the third through fifth positions, respectively, earning significant points early on for the Ephs.
A great second half in the 200 Freestyle from senior Will Brown got him second place over a Boston College swimmer who was wearing a high-tech suit. Brown's perseverance and result fired up the Williams men and was the fastest time among the Williams competitors in the field, including Chris Weihs, John Freeman and Grant Johnson.
In the 100 Backstroke, Williams men took three of the top four spots, led by an impressive 50.07 first place finish from sophomore Ben Lin. Tim Kostolansky and Colin Hogan took third and fourth. Soon after was a fast 100 Breaststroke race, where juniors Jake Tamposi and Jon Yin were able to score points for the Ephs, getting second and fourth places, respectively.
Senior Thad Ricotta then dropped a 1:53.38 in the 200 Butterfly to convincingly win the event for Williams.
The 50 Freestyle is one of BC's strengths and was a tough event for Williams to compete in considering several of the BC swimmers had their high-tech suits on. However, junior Alex McCarter continued to show off his speed, hitting the wall in second place with a 21.49. Senior Alex Nanda had an important fifth place finish for the Ephs to grab another point for Williams.
In the diving portion of the meet, senior Rohan Bhatt finished in second place on both the 1 meter and 3 meter boards to keep the Ephs in the meet as the only diver representing Williams.
After a short diving break, McCarter was back at the sprint Freestyle with a 46.93 in the 100, which was good for third place, followed by sophomore Grant Johnson in fourth place.
Down by a few at this point, Williams started to turn the meet around in the exciting 200 Backstroke race. Williams men were able to complete a 1-2-3 sweep over BC, led by Ben Lin and followed by Colin Hogan and Nathaniel Boley.
In the 200 Breaststroke, Lattimer and Tamposi had fast swims to get second and third places behind a BC swimmer in a tech suit. Next, the 500 Freestyle was a powerful performance from the Ephs, where four of the top five finishes, including the top two, belonged to Williams. Christian Gronbeck had another eye-opening swim with a 4:36.72 and was followed by Thad Ricotta in second place, Will Brown in fourth and Chris Weihs in fifth.
Three Williams swimmers scored points in the 100 Butterfly. In Ben Lin's fourth and possibly most impressive swim of the evening, he won the event in 49.91. Jon Yin and Tim Kostolansky came in third and fifth places to get the edge over BC in the event.
Going into the last individual event, the 200 IM, the Ephs had closed the gap and the score of the meet was at a dead tie. Knowing that a fast 400 Freestyle relay from BC was waiting for them afterward, Williams needed as many points as possible from this event. Senior Tim Lattimer delivered. In a performance that brought the crowd to its feet, Lattimer won the event in 1:53.69. Lattimer is typically a Breaststroker, so it was evident that he was leaving it all in the pool when his Backstroke split came in at a 28.75, which was the fastest in the field. Also coming up big for Williams when they needed it the most were Knox Young and Tim Kostolansky. These two battled the whole way through to earn third and fourth place and to give Williams a chance in the last relay.
The Williams "A" team in the 400 Freestyle relay had to get second place for the meet to result in a tie. Any better result, including two Williams relays finishing inside the top three, would have won the meet for Williams and upset Boston College. Any worse result, and BC would have walked away victorious. Alex McCarter, Thad Ricotta, Grant Johnson and Alex Nanda stepped up for Williams. They did the job, getting second place in a thrilling race that was decided by about one-tenth of a second. The result of the meet, then, was a tie. A great result for the Williams men.
Nick Stone had these remarks: "I could not be prouder of the team today. The work we have been doing is beginning to show, and it led to an exciting meet. It was a great way to end the semester and head into the second half of the season."
In addition, during today's competition both the Williams men and women were sporting new caps that read "IT'S ON US". This is part of a national campaign to combat sexual assault. The teams wore these caps to do their part to raise awareness and to pledge their support to the prevention of sexual assault, especially on the Williams campus.
