Kendall Hollimon wins Three-Meter Dive in Season-Opening Dual Meet at UC San Diego

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team opened its 2019-20 season with a road meet against UC San Diego, a powerful Division II program in transition to Division I, and fared well as the Stags look forward to a strong winter season.

The Tritons won the dual by a final score of 181-112 and by a combined 369-215 in the men's and women's scoring, as the Athenas were defeated 188-103. 

Senior All-American Kendall Hollimon earned a first-place finish for CMS in the three-meter dive, barely edging out Kyle Parenti of UC San Diego by just over two points (304.65 to 302.10). Parenti edged Hollimon in the one-meter by a similar margin (278.17 to 276.82).

The event started with the 200-yard medley relay and the Stags finished just under two seconds behind UC San Diego, with first-year Anderson Breazeale, sophomore Walter Limm, junior Marco Conati and junior Andreas Roeseler clocking a time of 1:32.80. 

The first individual event was the 1000-yard freestyle, where first-year Joe Zales came in third with a time of 9:53.07, followed in fourth by senior Ben Culberson. Roeseler was the top Stag finished in the 200 free, finishing in 1:45.82. 

Senior Dave Makhervaks earned a third-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing in 52.74, just beating out Breazeale, who had a 52.84 in his first collegiate individual race. Limm was third in the 100 breast in 59.00, and first-year Ben Smith was the top Stag in the 200 fly with a time of 1:57.14. 

Conati earned a pair of second-place finishes in the 50 free in 21.08 and the 100 fly in 51.07. Roeseler came in third in the 100 free in 46.83. while first-year Nathan Luis was right behind Conati in the 100 fly in 51.48.

Sophomore Nick Tan came in third in the 200 back with a 1:56.33, senior Henry Limm was second in the 200 breast in 2:09.08, followed by first-year Alec Vercruysse in third (2:12.34). Zales was second in the 500 (4:48.91), followed by junior Abel Sapirstein (4:50.46) and Culberson (4:50.64), who finished neck-and-neck in third and fourth.

The day capped off with the 400-yard freestyle relay, where the Stags team of Conati, Makhervaks, junior Will Grassle and Roeseler finished in 3:09.62, placing third. 

CMS will have two weeks off before returning to dual competition with its SCIAC opener at Caltech on Nov. 9. The Stags will then host a tri-meet with Chapman and Cal Lutheran on Nov. 16 at 10 a.m.