WPI Men
The 200-yard freestyle relay team capped the night with an exciting win and junior Andrew Kelleher (Poughquag, NY) won a pair of events as the WPI men’s swimming and diving team defeated Wesleyan, 231-88, and was narrowly edged by Tufts, 160-155, at the Cardinal Duals Friday night.
The foursome of junior Andrew Bauer (Cumberland, RI), freshman Jack Bauer (Cumberland, RI), senior Alex Powers (North Scituate, RI) and senior Nathan Hughes (Arlington, VA) collaborated to touch the wall .04 seconds ahead of the Tufts quartet in a time of 1:27.08. Kelleher, meanwhile, swept the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke with times of 59.13 and 2:09.32. He was the only student-athlete to break a minute in the 100 as junior Tim Petri (Eksjo, Sweden) came home third (1:01.26). The 200 saw freshman Alex Gallant (Lakeville, MA) and Petri finish third (2:12.39) and fourth (2:13.21) to go along with a sixth-place time of 2:17.15 by sophomore Sam Carley (Trumbull, CT).
Jack Bauer took the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 51.23 as sophomore Karim Elsayed (Cairo, Egypt) was second (53.01) and classmate Cam Back (St. Louis, MO) was as sixth (54.88). Powers claimed the 100-yard backstroke (51.58) while freshman Jackson Perry (Cumberland, RI) clocked a fifth-place 56.35. Hughes was victorious in the 100-yard freestyle (47.88) and was followed by Andrew Bauer in fourth (48.51) and Elsayed in sixth (48.99). Gallant rounded out the Engineer winners with a 4:08.69 in the 400-yard IM. Junior Seth MacDonald (Sherrill, NY) followed Gallant in sixth (4:24.33).
Kelleher was a better part of a second away from also taking the 50-yard breaststroke with a 28.07. Jack Bauer posted a 24.34 as the runner up in the 50-yard backstroke as the Crimson and Gray also had the fourth and fifth-place finishers in Powers (24.37) and Perry (24.90). Hughes completed the 50-yard freestyle in 21.85, good for second as Andrew Bauer was third (22.42) and sophomore Chris Massar (Monroe, CT) was sixth (22.95).
The Boynton Hillers also had a trio place in the top six in the 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly. Powers paced the Engineers with a silver finish in the 200 back (1:53.89) with Houghton and Gallant finishing third (1:54.53) and fourth (1:58.95). Hughes added another second-place time of 1:45.73 in the 200 free. Andrew Bauer followed in third (1:48.78) and sophomore Craig Barrett (Edinburgh, Scotland) was fifth (1:50.60). MacDonald (1:57.87) and Houghton (1:58.29) were 2-3 in the 200 fly as Back posted a 2:01.93 to place sixth. Barrett also finished third in the 500-yard freestyle (4:53.55) while Elsayed (24.44) edged out MacDonald (24.48) to take third in the 50-yard butterfly.
Sophomore Randy Melanson (Attleboro, MA) led the Crimson and Gray divers with a third-place 203.35 on the 3-meter board and a fourth-place 198.15 on the 1-meter board. Fellow sophomore Ryan Coran (Potomac, MD) added a fifth-place score of 181.55 in the 3-meter event.
The Engineers head west for a 1pm dual at Pomona-Pitzer on Tuesday, January 5th.
WPI Women
Senior Veronica Nikolaki (Athens, Greece) swept the diving events as WPI fell to Wesleyan and Tufts at the Cardinal Duals Friday night. The hosts notched a 166-149 victory while the Jumbos margin was 184-123.
Nikolaki amassed 257.05 points in the 1-meter and accumulated 226.35 on the 3-meter board. Sophomore Kristen Bender (Simi Valley, CA) was fourth (199.60) on the 1-meter and classmate Haley Poskus (Middleboro, MA) was third (200.70) on the 3-meter. Junior Zoe Eggleston (Newtown, CT) and sophomore Jenny Day (Chelmsford, MA) took home first place points in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:34.43) and 200-yard butterfly (2:16.43), respectively.
Day was second in the 500-yard freestyle (5:20.36) and 400-yard IM (4:51.11) as freshman Caroline Flynn (Norwell, MA) was fifth in the 400 IM (5:02.93). Eggleston added a second-place time in the 50-yard breaststroke (32.06) to go with a third-place time in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:09.88) as sophomore Allysa Grant (Framingham, MA) came home fifth in both the 50 (1:12.10) and 100 (33.24).
Junior Emily Martin (Penfield, NY) earned silver in the 50-yard freestyle (25.81), finished sixth in the 100-yard butterfly (1:03.32) and was seventh in the 100-yard freestyle (56.92). Sophomore Emily Matsco (Windham, NH) touched the wall third in the 200-yard freestyle (2:02.56) as fellow sophomore Allie Connor (Baldwinsville, NY) was fifth in the 50-yard butterfly (27.82) and junior Sierra Fowler (Bensalem, PA) was sixth in the 50-yard backstroke (30.18). Freshman Jenna Vandervort (Voorheesville, NY) had the quickest Engineer time in the 200-yard backstroke with an 11th-place 2:22.86.
Day, Martin, junior Eva Childers (Henniker, NH) and sophomore Thea Reymann (Toms River, NJ) snagged third-place points for their 1:43.39 in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
WPI treks to California for its annual trip and will face Pomona-Pitzer on Tuesday, January 5.
