Freestyle Relay Sets Pool Record on First Day of Pomona-Pitzer Meet for CMS Men's Swimming and Diving

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Daniel Hayon, Dave Makhervaks, Marco Conati and Andreas Roeseler capped off the first day of a two-day dual meet with Pomona-Pitzer for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team by setting a new Axelrood Pool record with a time of 1:24.01 on Friday afternoon.

Pomona-Pitzer won four of the five swimming events on the day to take a 63.5-42.5 lead over the Stags heading into tomorrow's second day, which will feature a full day of 13 events (12 swimming, one diving).

The 1:24.01 time set by the 200-yard freestyle relay team surpassed the previous Axelrood Pool record of 1:24.71, set by CMS two years ago.  The other four swimming events on the day also saw new pool records set by the Sagehens, as the two top-12 teams (No. 10 Pomona-Pitzer, No. 12 CMS) pushed each other to the fastest times ever seen at the facility. 

The meet started with the 400-yard medley relay, and the CMS team of Makhervaks, Aaron Lutzker, Conati and Roeseler finished second in 3:22.81, which was almost five seconds faster than the old pool record, but still placed them second, as the Sagehens finished in 3:21.58. The first individual event saw Paddy Baylis of Pomona-Pitzer (4:35.51) edge out Michael Lee (4:40.23) in the 500 to set a new pool mark in that event. 

The 200 IM saw the Sagehens pick up another close win as Jason Lu finished in 1:52.79 to edge out Lutzker (1:53.87) and Sean Hoerger (1:54.27), with all three swimmers passing the old Axelrood standard of 1:54.32, which had stood for 16 years since it was set by Felix Sutanto of Cal Baptist in 2002.

The last individual event of the day (50-yard freestyle) saw Roeseler come in second with a time of 20.98, just behind Lukas Menkhoff of Pomona-Pitzer (20.71), who broke the pool record of 20.77 that had stood since 2001 when it was set by former Sagehen Ben Komer. It was the fourth straight swimming win for the Sagehens, until CMS was able to close out the day with the freestyle relay win to try to build some momentum going into tomorrow. 

Tomorrow's action will begin with the 1-meter dive at 10:30 a.m. before swimming gets underway at 12 noon with the 200 medley relay, followed by the 400 IM.