The Ephs had their greatest test this evening since December against B.C. when they found themselves down to Connecticut College at the first diving break.
Head coach Steve Kuster and the senior leaders helped to rally the team in the second half of the meet, and Williams was able to remain unbeaten this year with wins over both Connecticut College and Wesleyan University. With the NESCAC championships fast approaching, competition with Little Three rival Wesleyan and a dangerous Conn College team is a good gauge of the Ephs' preparedness for end of the season racing. After a shaky start to the evening, however, coach Kuster remains cautious, saying "today put us on notice that people will be coming after us and while we have a strong team we need to be at our best from start to finish."
Things got started with the 200 Medley Relay where, just like against Amherst one week ago, Williams A and B relays were able to beat the top teams from both Connecticut and Wesleyan. The A relay team of Tim Kostolansky, Jake Tamposi, Ben Lin and Grant Johnson was highlighted by a 25.73 Breaststroke split from Tamposi, who would continue his Breaststroke speed later on.
Christian Gronbeck led a group of Williams distance swimmers to take five of the top six fastest times out of all three teams in the 1650 Freestyle. Gronbeck's time of 15:54.46 is an NCAA 'B' cut. The next fastest finish in the event was another Williams senior, Adrien Downey, who tracked down and touched out a Connecticut swimmer by just under a second.
After Alex McCarter pulled out a clutch win in the 200 Freestyle, Connecticut started to make up ground in the points. Four of the top five finishes in the 100 Backstroke were Connecticut Camels; Tim Kostolansky was the lone Ephman and finished in second place. The Camels made up more points by winning the 100 Breaststroke and the 200 Butterfly in succession. And before the first diving break Camels finished first and second in the 50 Freestyle ahead of Williams' Jon Yin.
Connecticut was able to win the 100 Freestyle after the break before Williams was able to shift the momentum back in its favor. Alex McCarter started the momemntum swing in the 200 Backstroke, delivering an NCAA 'B' cut time of 1:52.35 while winning the event. Tim Kostolansky came in third place.
A fast swim and hard fought victory from Jake Tamposi in the 200 Breaststroke fired up the Williams swimmers, and earned Tamposi an NCAA 'B' cut. Seniors Thad Ricotta and Gronbeck followed up by finishing first and second in the 500 Freestyle. Their classmate Will Brown came home with the fastest last 50 in the field and finished in fifth place.
Momentum was squarely back with Williams now and Ben Lin and Jon Yin capitalized by finishing first and second in the 100 Butterfly over a fast group of Connecticut swimmers.
In the diving portion of the meet, Rohan Bhatt was sitting out this evening due to injury, though he is expected back by next week. Sophomore Andrew Lyness turned in a personal best performance on the 1m board in the only action for Williams on the boards
The last individual swimming event was the 400 IM. Tim Lattimer turned in another impressive performance for Williams, hitting the wall at 4:04.91 and earning an NCAA 'B' cut. Behind Lattimer, junior Knox Young had the fastest last 100 to make up significant ground and finish in third place.
Finally it was the 200 Freestyle relay. The A relay team of Alex McCarter, John Hammond, John Freeman and Grant Johnson was able to touch out a relay from Connecticut to secure a win in the event and the meet for Williams.
After the meet, coach Kuster said "There were some outstanding efforts in the second half of the meet that helped us pull out a win. I look forward to what should be another competitive meet on Friday against MIT and the challenge of a quick turn around for Middlebury on Saturday."
The Ephs; defeat of Wesleyan today it is the 39th straight win over the Cardinals and makes the all-time record 78-15-1 in the Ephs' favor. The last Wesleyan win came in 1972 at Williams when the Cardinals prevailed 58-55.
The win over Conn makes the all-time series 8-0 in favor of the Ephs.
