CMS Men's Swimming and Diving Ranked No. 10 in Preseason Poll

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team was picked tenth in Division III in the preseason poll from the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America, which was released on Friday.

The Stags are coming off of an eighth-place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships last year, and return many of their key swimmers, including national champion Frank Applebaum, who set a new NCAA DIII record in the 200 fly (1:44.01) and also earned All-America honors in the 100 fly. All-Americans Lucas Lang (second in 1650) and Nick Tekieli (third in 100 back), are also returning after top-three finishes at last year's NCAA Championships, where they helped CMS set 11 program records.

Honorable mention All-Americans Anderson Breazeale (200 back), Cyrus Gaylord (three-meter dive) are also back for the Stags. In addition to the individual success, the Stags also finished second nationally in three different relays. Theo Johnson, Dylan Krueger and Eric Workman are returning from the CMS relay teams that competed at the NCAA Championships as well. 

CMS also had a dominant performance at the SCIAC Championships, winning by 143 points over second-place Pomona-Pitzer (1146-1003), capturing the 39th league title in program history. 

Denison earned the top spot in the preseason poll, followed by Kenyon and Johns Hopkins in the top three. Emory, Chicago, MIT, WashU, NYU and Carnegie Mellon were in the 4-9 spots, with Pomona-Pitzer (11), Williams (12) and Tufts (13) just behind the Stags. 

CMS will open its 2022-23 season next weekend with a dual meet at UC San Diego, beginning at 1 p.m., and then open at home with a tri-meet against Chapman and Caltech on Nov. 12 at 10 a.m.