CMS Men's Swimming and Diving Runs Away with SCIAC Title

LA MIRADA, Calif. - SCIAC Newcomer of the Year Nick Tekieli won his third individual race of the weekend, while Anderson Breazeale, Frank Applebaum, and Lucas Lang each won their second, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team defending its SCIAC Championship in convincing fashion, defeating second-place Pomona-Pitzer by a final margin of 1146-1003.

The last time the Stags earned the SCIAC title in 2020, it was won by a slim margin of only 14 points, as CMS had very few individual champions (only Marco Conati in the 100 fly, and Kendall Hollimon in the diving events). This time around, the Stags dominated the podium throughout the meet, capping it off today with four of the six championships contested, as the program won the 39th league title in its history. 

Tekieli earned his third championship of the weekend by winning a razor-thin race against his own teammate, Marco Conati, in the 100 free. Conati looked like he had the edge at the wall, but Tekieli's fingertips just beat him there, by a final margin of five-hundredths of a second (44.73 to 44.78), which rank as the second and third best times in program history. Tekieli earlier captured both the 50 free and the 100 back. Eric Workman also qualified for the finals of the 100 free, and earned a fifth-place finish for the Stags. 

Breazeale had a big performance in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing in 1:46.69 to win by almost three seconds, and moving into second in CMS history. Dylan Krueger also made his way to the podium with a third-place finish in 1:50.32, while Grant Stucky was fourth in 1:51.70. Breazeale added that championship to his 200-yard freestyle win, as well as an All-SCIAC performance (third in the 500 free). 

The 500 free was won by Lucas Lang of the Stags on Thursday, and he added his second with a new SCIAC record in the 1650, finishing in 15:22.76, 15 seconds ahead of his closest competitor.

Frank Applebaum added a new meet record in the 200 fly, finishing in 1:46.06, taking 2.6 seconds off the old CMS school record, which was his second title after he also earned the 200 IM win on Thursday. Thayer Breazeale (sixth) and Ben Smith (ninth) also earned spots in the finals for the Stags. 

Senior Walter Limm earned his way onto the podium in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:01.45, placing him third and moving him into second in school history, just .15 ahead of his brother Henry, who graduated in 2019. Alec Vercruysse (sixth) also qualified for the finals, while Chris Ranlett won the consolation heat. 

Several Stags will continue on to NCAA competition next month, once the qualifiers are determined after all of the conference championships are completed. Seven CMS student-athletes were scheduled to go to the NCAAs in 2020, but the shutdown occurred just a week before their scheduled flights.