CMS Men's Swim and Dive Wins All Four Events, Takes 71-Point Lead After Day Two of SCIACs
LA MIRADA, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team won all four events that were held on Thursday at the SCIAC Championships, with individual wins from Lucas Lang (500 free), Nick Tekieli (50 free), and Frank Applebaum (200 IM) and a 200-yard freestyle relay win, as the Stags stretched their lead to 71 points at the midway point of league championships.
Heading into the third day tomorrow, CMS has 448 points to maintain its hold on first place, followed by Pomona-Pitzer with 377 points. Caltech is in third with 244.
Lang began the day by setting a new CMS record in the 500, winning a tight battle over Larry Yu of Pomona-Pitzer by just .29 seconds. Lang's time of 4:26.68 surpassed the CMS record of 4:28.11, set by Cameron Whiting in 2015, and was just .02 off the league record set by Mark Hallman of Pomona-Pitzer in 2018. Lang led over the entire second half of the race, but had to hold off Yu at the end, who closed a one-second gap to within .13 with 50 yards to go before Lang was faster over the final 50 to hold on.
Anderson Breazeale added a third-place finish for the Stags, setting a new personal-best of 4:29.87 to earn All-SCIAC honors. His time places fourth in CMS history, with Lang taking over the top spot with his 4:26.68.
Applebaum had a big win in the 200 IM, recording the second-fastest time in CMS history in 1:49.66. Applebaum swam a 1:52.11 in prelims and was seeded just sixth in the finals, but he trimmed two and a half seconds off that time in the evening session to defeat defending SCIAC Swimmer of the Year AJ Nybo of Cal Lutheran, who finished second in 1:50.07. Chris Ranlett (sixth) and Alec Vercruysse (eighth) also qualified for the finals, while Ben Smith finished first in the consolation heat.
Tekieli and teammate Marco Conati came in 1-2 in the 50-yard freestyle to give the Stags a combined 41 points, as Tekieli's winning time of 20.32 ranks as the third-best time in CMS history, while Dylan Krueger qualified for the finals as well and came in fifth in 20.98. Tekieli and Conati then came back after a short intermission to swim the final two legs of a winning 200-yard freestyle relay that set a new SCIAC meet record in 1:21.18, just .02 off the CMS record. The CMS B team of Ranlett, Weston Crewe, Walter Limm and Eric Workman also won its heat.
The third day of the SCIAC Championships gets underway tomorrow with prelims at 9 a.m., followed by 5 p.m. finals, which will include individual events in the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.