First day of NCAA Championships in the books for Stags and Ngo of Athenas

First day of NCAA Championships in the books for Stags and Ngo of Athenas

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Three honorable mention All-America swims including a consolation finals relay win put the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming team in 10th place (29.50) after the first day of the 2016 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships, March 16 at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

The highlight of the day for the Stags came in the 200 medley relay as the team of junior Matthew Williams (CMC), senior Zach Alleva (CMC), senior Alex Poltash (CMC) and senior Joseph Hinton (CMC) won the consolation finals. Their time of 1:29.78 is the second-fastest in CMS history. Alleva's 50 breaststroke split in the prelims (25.20) is second on the CMS top-10 list as he improved on his previous-best split (25.24).

For the Athenas, in her first of three events during the Championships (50 free, 100 free, 200 free) as the lone CMS women's competitor, junior Kelly Ngo (CMC) swam in the 50 free Wednesday and finished in 25th with a time of 23.75.

In the 200-yard individual medley, senior Matthew Valentine (HMC) became an honorable mention All-American. He finished in third place (11th overall) in the consolation final with a time of 1:50.84, just off his preliminary time of 1:50. 78. His prelim time is faster than his Championships qualifying time of 1:51.51 which ranked 24th heading into Wednesday. It is also a new personal record and he moved from fourth to third on the CMS top-10 list.

Similar to Valentine, in the 50 freestyle, Poltash finished in 11th for honorable mention All-America honors and he tied for third in the consolation finals (20.49). In the morning preliminaries, Poltash came in one-one hundredth of a second faster than he did in the finals. Also in the prelims, sophomore Noah Deer (CMC) finished in 28th, but he still made a mark in the CMS record books with a time (20.71) that ranks fifth all-time for the Stags. Both Poltash and Deer swam faster than their qualifying times.

Time trials start each day at 10 a.m. and the finals are scheduled for 6 p.m. EST. Live video and live scoring is available throughout the week at the NCAA Championships. A schedule of events and other meet information can be found in the Championships Program.

Results

Team Scores

Live Scoring

Watch Live

Championships Program

By Chris Watts
Director of Athletics Communication
Claremont McKenna College


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