Ducks Take Big Lead into Final Day at F&M Invite
Rob Kulish
Day 2 Prelims | Day 2 Finals | Team Scores
LANCASTER, Pa. (November 23, 2014) – The sixth-ranked Stevens Institute of Technology men's swimming team is in the lead heading into the third and final day of competition at the 2014 Franklin & Marshall College Invitational.
The Ducks have a team total of 618.5 points. Washington & Lee University is second (389.5) and Saint Vincent College is third (308.5). Nine total teams are competing at the event in Lancaster.
Prelims
Junior
Tomasz Wolinski won the 50-yard freestyle prelim and was followed by freshman
Ethan Gehenio, senior
John Rees and junior
Dane Pilcher in the top-eight.
Senior
Price Hu took the top-spot in the 400-IM, clocking a 4:15.70, with freshman
Brennan Maxwell and junior
Joshua Lefeber (50.84, 51.35) taking one-two in the 100-yard butterfly. Senior
Alex Xu, sophomore Connor Arnott and freshman
Connor Harrigan swept one-two-three in the 200-yard freestyle, pocketing times of 1:43.63, 1:43.96 and 1:45.92, respectively.
Pilcher and sophomore
Alex Chen went second and third in the 200-yard breaststroke, touching at 2:09.28 and 2:09.47, and junior
Ravi Sun touched at 49.63 to take first in the 100-yard backstroke. He set a new school-record, beating his own mark of 50.27 from 2014. Sun's time was also good for an NCAA B-cut and F&M Invite record. Gehenio finished second with a 51.59.
Closing the second session of the meet and first of the day was the 800-yard freestyle relay team. That event does not have a prelim so the team of Wolinski, Arnott, freshman
James Betz and Xu set a meet record and placed first with a time of 6:51.31 to earn 40 points. The previous mark was set in 1999.
Finals
The Ducks continued to perform exceptionally in the finals, as Wolinski took first with a 20.87 in the 50-free to earn 20 team tallies. Gehenio, Rees and Pilcher notched times of 21.57, 21.79 and 21.92 all scoring highly in the top-eight. Sophomore
Doug Sholander won the consolation final with a 21.92.
Hu won the 400-IM, touching at 4:12.16, and Lefeber did the same in the 100-fly, clocking a 49.50 (meet record is 49.49 set in 1996). Maxwell was second in the event with a 50.59 and Rees placed fifth (52.56).
Xu was a winner in the 200-free final with a 1:43.24, followed closely by Arnott (1:43.96) and Harrigan (1:45.25). Betz ended up winning the consolation final with a 1:43.16, the best time of all 200-free finalists.
Freshman
David Duque placed second in the 200-breaststroke final, picking up 17 points with his 2:08.49. Pilcher was fourth and Chen fifth as the duo brought in 29 tallies.
Gehenio and Sholander finished first and second in the 100-backstroke as Gehenio's 51.28 was good for an NCAA B-cut.
Finishing the Day 2 action was the 200-yard medley relay. Sun, Lefeber, Maxwell and Wolinski set a meet and pool record, also carding a B-cut with a 1:32.15. Gehenio, Duque, Rees and Xu were second, with the two teams earning 74 points combined.
The third and final day of action at F&M is Sunday with the prelims starting at 9 a.m.