Marco Conati will be swimming in three events for CMS at the NCAA Division III Championships this week
Marco Conati will be swimming in three events for CMS at the NCAA Division III Championships this week

Marco Conati Wins SCIAC Title in 50 Free for CMS Men's Swimming and Diving

COMMERCE, Calif. - Sophomore Marco Conati earned the first SCIAC title of the four-day conference championships for the CMS men's swimming and diving team, taking first place in the 50-yard freestyle on Friday evening at the Brenda Villa Aquatic Complex.

Conati won by a narrow margin in the sprint event, finishing in 20.69 seconds, just ahead of Lukas Menkhoff of Pomona-Pitzer (20.77) and Aaron Bauer of Redlands (20.78) in second and third. Sophomore Daniel Hayon and sophomore Andreas Roeseler also qualified for the finals in the 50 free and came in seventh and eighth place, respectively, adding a combined 27 points to the CMS total. 

The day began with the 500-yard freestyle, which saw junior Ben Culberson and freshman Michael Lee finish fourth and fifth after qualifying for the finals in the morning. Culberson finished in 4:33.42, an NCAA "B" cut time, with Lee close behind in 4:35.73.

The 200 IM saw five of the nine swimmers in the finals wearing CMS caps after a strong showing in prelims. Freshman Nick Tan earned his way onto the podium with a third-place finish for All-SCIAC honors, tying for third in exactly 1:52.00. Senior Aaron Lutzker was fifth in 1:52.57, senior Jackson Crewe came in seventh with a 1:53.85, and sophomore Sean Hoerger and junior Sam Willett ended in eighth and ninth, respectively. 

The final event of the day was the 200-yard freestyle relay, which saw CMS finished second, less than a second behind Pomona-Pitzer, with a time of 1:22.75. Sophomore Will Grassle, Conati, Hayon and Roeseler were the four Stag swimmers in that event, who earned All-SCIAC honors with their second-place finish. 

Day three of the SCIAC Championships gets underway with the prelims at 9 a.m., including the first backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke events of the championships.