CMS Men's Swim and Dive Stays Unbeaten in SCIAC with Dominant Win over Redlands

REDLANDS, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team improved to 6-0 in SCIAC with a 207-84 win over Redlands on Saturday afternoon in the rain at the Thompson Aquatics Center.

The Stags are now 6-2 overall in dual meets on the season, with the only two losses coming to Division I programs (UC San Diego, California Baptist). Steven Tran (50 free, 200 breast, 200 IM) won three individual events for the Stags, while Anderson Breazeale (200 free, 200 back), Lucas Lang (1000 free, 500 free) and Bennet Matazzoni (one-meter dive, three-meter dive) were dual winners. 

g began the individual events by rolling to a huge win in the 1000 free by a margin of almost 45 seconds, touching the wall in 9:44.73 before the runner-up from Redlands was able to reach in 10:29.68. Anderson Breazeale earned a close win in the 200 free in 1:46.57, edging Blake Eddow of Redlands (1:46.89) and Theo Johnson (1:46.95) in second and third. Frank Applebaum, a national champion in the 200-yard butterfly, then earned a victory in the 100 back in 54.53, a win over just over one second over teammate Grant Stucky. 

Korin Aldam-Tajima earned first in the 100 breast in 1:01.01, edging out teammate Alec Vercruysse (1:01.61). Thayer Breazeale then followed with a 200 fly win in 1:57.19, with Tyler Headley second in 1:59.44. Tran capped off the first session with a 22.37 in the 50 free, a win by just .07 over teammate Eric Workman, for his first of three wins. 

Anderson Breazeale added his second win in the 200 back in 1:58.61, with Workman taking his second runner-up finish. Tran earned his second victory with a 2:06.63 in the 200 breast, a win by more than three seconds. Lang came up with his second victory in the 500 free by just under three seconds, a much closer race than his 45-second win in the 1000, defeating Tom Jansen of Redlands 4:43.80 to 4:46.71. 

Tyler Headley took first in the 100 fly in 53.20, with Ethan Chen second and Charlie Bollwerk third in a 1-2-3 Stag finish. Tran finished off his hat trick of individual wins with a 1:57.62 in the 200 IM, with Stucky second in 1:57.62. 

Matazzoni earned his first collegiate wins in the diving events, taking the one-meter with a score of 266.45, edging Ethan Sattley with a 264.30. In the three-meter, Matazzoni had a 246.60, with Sattley second in a 233.20.

CMS opened the meet with a 1-2 finish in the 400-yard medley relay, with Anderson Breazeale, Tran, Applebaum and Theo Johnson earning the win in 3:29.76. Redlands was able to cap the meet off with a close win in the 200 free relay. 

In addition to the dual meet at Redlands, the Stags sent five divers to compete at the UCLA Diving Invitational on Friday in the one-meter, while Jack Griffith and Cyrus Gaylord stayed at UCLA on Saturday to also compete in the three-meter. Against a field of almost entirely DI competition, Gaylord earned 28th place in the three-meter on Saturday with 244.15 points, while Griffith was 35th with 207.40 points.

On Friday, Gaylord was 32nd in the one-meter with 212.00 points, while Griffith was 34th with 190.60 points. Matazzoni, Sattley and Ben Smith also competed against divers from the likes of USC, Stanford, TCU, Utah, Wisconsin, and Hawaii.

CMS will be back in action in two weeks for its final SCIAC regular season competition, a tri-meet at Cal Lutheran which also includes La Verne. The program will then host an invitational as a pre-SCIAC tune-up on Feb. 4, before the four-day SCIAC Championships take place from Feb. 15-18.