Stags Control Occidental and Caltech on Senior Day
CLAREMONT, Calif. – The Stags celebrated their senior class before taking care of the Occidental Tigers and Caltech Beavers in convincing fashion on Saturday morning. The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team handed the Tigers a 233-55 loss while defeating the Beavers by a 228-63 margin.
The Stags won all but one event in the double dual for a total of 15 victories on the day.
Saturday's meet started with Kendall Hollimon (CMC) dominating the one and three meter diving competition. Hollimon turned in scores of 310.30 in the one-meter competition and a 366.40 in the three-meter event.
Hollimon was one of four Stags to win multiple events on Saturday. Ben Culberson (CMC), Marco Conati (HMC), and Henry Limm (HMC) also won two individual events to highlight a stellar day for the Stags.
Conati began his strong day with a victory in the 100 Back, getting to the wall in 52.35. Teammate John Jeang (HMC) finished second in the event with a time of 53.74 as the Stags turned in the three fastest times in the event. Just a few events later, Conati showed his versatility by winning the 100 Free in a time of 47.09. Conati nearly completed the hat trick in the 100 Fly, but he was bested by his teammate, Aaron Lutzker (HMC).
Lutzker won the 100 Fly with a time of 51.13, less than two tenths of a second ahead of Conati's time of 51.31.
Culberson claimed the two longest races of the day. He won the 1000 Free in a time of 10:08.83, finishing more than three seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Culberson later won the 500 Free in 4:50.58, out touching teammate Jacob Eynon (CMC - 4:51.87) by less than a second to claim his second event of the day.
Henry Limm claimed the 200 Breast and the 200 IM to round out the multiple winners on the day for the Stags. Limm won the 200 Breast going away. He turned in the fastest split in each of the four laps en route to winning the events by exactly four seconds with a time of 2:05.95. Limm later claimed the 200 IM with a time of 1:56.67, finishing a little over a second ahead of fellow Stag John Everett (CMC - 1:57.74).
Jackson Crewe (HMC) turned in a strong time in the 200 Free, logging a 1:43.69 to win the event by nearly a second. Crewe's first-place swim was followed by four freshman who finished second through fifth in the event. Included in that quartet was CMS freshman Patricio Madero (CMC), who took third in a time of 1:47.16.
Dave Makhervaks (HMC), who won the 200 Back by 2.78 seconds, finishing in a time of 1:55.68, and John Everett, who took the 200 Fly in a time of 1:53.29 (more than five seconds ahead of second place), won their events by sizable margins.
Daniel Hayon's (CMC) victory in the 50 Free was quite the opposite. The freshman out touched his fellow freshman teammate Andreas Roeseler (HMC) by just .03 of a second. Hayon and Roeseler turned in strong times, finishing in 21.32 and 21.35, respectively.
In addition to the 13 individual events that the Stags won on the day, CMS also claimed both the 200 Medley and the 400 Free Relays. The team of Makhervaks, Grant Murray (HMC), Crewe, and Roeseler claimed the 200 Medley Relay in a time of 1:34.16 and the group of Makhervaks, Hayon, Roeseler, and Madero took home the 400 Free Relay, finishing in 3:11.32.
Also of note, Caltech's Tom Gallup set a new Axelrood Pool record in the 100 Breast. The sophomore and 2017 All-American turned in a time of 56.99 to break the previous mark, set by Aaron Lutzker on Nov. 11, 2016 (57.98), by nearly a full second.
Saturday's meet completed the home schedule for the Stags in 2017-18. CMS will complete their final tune-up before the SCIAC Championships in two weeks when they travel to Chapman on Feb. 3 for their final meet of the regular season. Two and a half weeks after that meet, the Stags will take on the SCIAC in the Conference Championships from Feb. 21-24.
