CMS Men's Swimming and Diving Rolls to Two SCIAC Wins over Occidental, Caltech

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The CMS men's swimming and diving team hosted a tri-meet with Occidental and Caltech on Saturday afternoon at Axelrood Pool, and had little trouble picking up a sweep, earning a 218-82 win over Occidental and a 251-45 win over Caltech.

The two wins improve CMS' record to 3-3 overall and 3-0 in SCIAC competition after also picking up a healthy 235-56 win over Chapman last week. 

The Stags took first place in every swimming event except one (the 200 free) as they earned over 200 points for their third straight SCIAC meet. Junior Henry Limm (pictured) won three events, taking the 1000 in the first individual event of the day and following with a sweep of the 100 and 200 breaststroke events. 

Occidental started the day with a diving sweep to take a lead heading into the swimming portion of the competition, but the lead didn't last long. CMS went 1-2 in the opening medley relay, with the A team of Dave Makhervaks, Aaron Lutzker, Marco Conati and Andreas Roeseler finishing in first place in 1:34.26. Limm then took his first individual title with a very close finish in the 1000 against teammate Matthew Waddell, winning by a margin of less than a quarter of a second (9:56.43 to 9:56.66). 

After Zeke Sebastian of Occidental picked up the only swimming win of the day that didn't go to CMS, the Stags swept the next four to take a commanding lead heading into the first intermission. Makhervaks won the 100 back in 52.93 to start the run, and then Limm won his second photo finish of the day over a teammate in the 100 breast, touching the wall in 1:00.53, compared to a 1:00.81 from freshman Joel Lotzkar. Senior John Everett earned first place in the 200 fly in 1:54.48 and Conati sent the Stags into the break with another win in the 50 free, finishing in 21.22.

The momentum carried over into the second half of the meet, as Roeseler started things back up with a win in the 100 free (46.97), and senior Jackson Crewe took first in the 200 back (1:56.57). Limm made it 3-for-3 in his individual events with a much larger victory margin, taking the 200 breast by six seconds (2:07.37), and junior Ben Culberson took the 500 free in 4:46.82 in a close finish against Waddell, who picked up his second silver by a narrow margin with a 4:47.11.

The Stags then went 1-2-3 in the final two individual events, the 100 fly (won by Lutzker in 51.86) and the 200 IM (won by freshman Nicholas Tan in 1:56.81). Daniel Hayon, Makhervaks, Conati and Roesler then finished off the day with a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay, setting a new Axelrood Pool record with a time of 3:07.53, breaking the old mark set last year by six-hundredths of a second.

CMS will be back in action after the Thanksgiving break when it hosts Pomona-Pitzer in a two-day SCIAC meet at Axelrood Pool. The first part of the competition will take place on Friday, November 30, with the conclusion on Saturday, December 1.