CMS Men's Swim and Dive Leads by 20 After First Day of Pomona-Pitzer Meet

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team was one-hundredth of a second away from sweeping the swimming events on the first day of its annual Pomona-Pitzer dual, but will settle for a 20-point lead (65-45) heading into the second day tomorrow at Haldeman Pool.

CMS took the 400 medley relay in 3:19.37 to start the meet, the seventh-fastest time in program history, with Jeremy Tan, Evan Deedy, Frank Applebaum and Theo Johnson winning by just over two seconds over their Pomona-Pitzer counterparts. 

Anderson Breazeale then won the first individual race by taking the 500 free in 4:29.88, just one-hundredth of a second off of his personal best which he set last year (and which ranks fourth in CMS history). Thayer Breazeale added a third-place finish in 4:36.39. 

Applebaum earned the win in the 200-yard individual medley in 1:50.95, while Henrik Barck cracked the top 10 in CMS history with a 1:51.93, finishing third in the meet and placing 10th at CMS. Nick Tekieli, who holds the CMS record in the 50 free (19.98 at the 2022 NCAA Championships) swam in his first race of the year and earned first place with a 20.53. 

Pomona-Pitzer finished the day off with a very narrow win in the 200 free relay (1:22.95 to 1:22.96), but it was only enough to get the Sagehens within 20 points as CMS will take a 65-45 lead into the second day tomorrow. Ben Willett also took a win in the three-meter dive for Pomona-Pitzer, with Cyrus Gaylord second and Jack Griffith third for the Stags. 

The second day of action will get underway tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. and will feature the 100 and 200 yard events in the freestyle, butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke, as well as the 400 IM and the 1650. The men's divers will compete on the one-meter board, and the 200 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay will be held as well.