CMS Men's Swimming and Diving Coasts Past La Verne to Remain Perfect in SCIAC

LA VERNE, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team won every event as it captured a 249.5-30.5 win over La Verne on Saturday afternoon at Las Flores Park.

With the win, CMS now stands at 5-2 in dual competition and 5-0 in the SCIAC, with the only two defeats coming to teams in transition to Division I (UC San Diego in October, and California Baptist yesterday). 

The Stags set the tone right from the beginning by finishing 1-5 in the 200-yard medley relay. The CMS "A" team of first-year Anderson Breazeale, senior Sam Willett, first-year Nathan Luis and junior Marco Conati won by almost a full second, touching the wall in 1:35.93. 

Junior Kyle Fendorf picked up the first individual win of the day for the Stags, capturing the 1000-yard freestyle in 10:02.54, while senior Ben Culberson led a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 free in 1:47.90, edging out first-year Thayer Breazeale by .19. The 100 free went to Willett by just .04 over classmate Dave Makhervaks (48.88 to 48.92), while Anderson Breazeale captured the 50 in 22.68. 

CMS swept the backstroke events, as Willett took first in the 100 in 53.81 over junior Will Grassle in 54.48, while Grassle came in first place in the 200 back in 2:01.08, beating out senior Henry Limm and Conati in second and third. The breaststroke events saw similar results, with sophomore Walter Limm taking first in the 100 in 58.49, while sophomore Nicholas Tan edged Limm in the 200 with a 2:12.58. 

The butterfly saw sophomore Matthew Waddell take the 200 in 1:59.39, with Conati and Luis finishing 2-3, while junior Andreas Roeseler edged Culberson in the 100 with a time of 53.97. Henry Limm took the 200 IM in 1:59.37, followed by Grassle and first-year Nicholas Zhang in a 1-2-3 CMS finish. 

Senior Kendall Hollimon took both diving events, breaking 300 in the three-meter with a score of 319.05 and winning the one-meter with a 288.50. The final freestyle relay also saw a 1-2-3 CMS finish, despite the "A" team being disqualified for an early takeoff, as the "B" team of Roeseler, Culberson, Moody and Makhervaks won the race in 1:28.57. 

CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it returns home to face Redlands at Axelrood Pool, with diving starting the action at 10 a.m., followed by swimming at 11 a.m.