Four-Peat! CMS Men's Swim and Dive Wins SCIAC Championship Again

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Frank Applebaum was named the Athlete of the Year after winning the 200 fly for the third year in a row, his third first-place finish of the weekend, and Anderson Breazeale (200 back) and Lucas Lang (1650) won their third SCIAC titles in a row as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team earned the league championship for the fourth straight season at East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium on Sunday.

CMS won the SCIAC title back in 2020 in a close 10-point decision, and then resumed its streak in 2022 after a one-year break due to the pandemic. 

This one wasn't quite that close as CMS built a big lead early on and maintained it throughout, finishing with 964.5 points to 895 for Pomona-Pitzer, a winning margin of almost 70.

Applebaum capped off his week with his third individual title on Sunday, winning the 200 fly as expected in 1:45.75, setting a new meet record. Applebaum is the two-time defending national champion in the event, setting a new Division III record at nationals as a sophomore with a 1:44.01, breaking that with a 1:43.96 to win his second title in 2023, and then breaking that record with a 1:43.87 in the regular season dual meet with Pomona-Pitzer at Axelrood Pool. Thayer Breazeale also qualified for the final for CMS and earned a fourth-place finish in 1:50.71. 

Breazeale led a 1-2-3 finish for CMS in the 200 back, which all but salted away the team title, as Henrik Barck came in second and Jeremy Tan was third. Breazeale's winning time was 1:47.54 and gave him his second win of the weekend, after he set a SCIAC record in the 500 free on Friday. Barck came in under 1:50 as well with a 1:49.30, while Tan was just barely off that pace with a 1:50.11. Grant Stucky also qualified for the finals and came in sixth. 

Lang got CMS off to a strong start by winning his third straight 1650 title with a 15:26.81, winning by just over six seconds over Cole Weiderman of Cal Lutheran. The Stags also had the No. 5 (Alex Johnson), No. 6 (Cole Sumino), No. 7 (Spencer Merodio) and No. 9 (Adam Vanluvanee) finishers as they built up their lead in the first event of the day, with the Sagehens managing just a fourth-place and 11th-place finish.

Evan Deedy earned All-SCIAC honors in the 200 breast with a 2:00.63 to come in second, after winning the 100 breast yesterday for the second year in a row. Steven Tran also qualified for the final and came in fourth. 

CMS will next await word of NCAA qualifiers, as several Stags will continue on to nationals, where Applebaum will try to win his third national title, and Lang will try to earn his way onto the All-America podium for the third time. The Stag divers will be in action next week for NCAA Regional Qualifiers.