CMS Men's Swim and Dive Moves into First Place after Third Day of SCIACs

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Nick Tekieli, Evan Deedy and Frank Applebaum finished in first place in the 100 back, 100 breast and 100 fly, respectively, and then swam the first three legs of the winning 400-yard medley relay to help the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's swimming and diving team move into first place by 20 points after the third of four days of competition at the SCIAC Swimming and Diving Championships at East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium on Friday.

CMS now stands at 640 points, holding a tight lead over Pomona-Pitzer with 620, and Caltech in third with 333 as the Stags are in position to capture their third straight league title. 

Tekieli led a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 back for the Stags as they moved into first place on the final individual event of the day, and then extended their lead with the medley relay win. Tekieli swam a 48.74 in the final, the only sub-50 swimmer in the field, with Grant Stucky finishing second in 50.29 and Jeremy Tan finishing third in 50.31. It was a big swim for Stucky, who finished fourth last year and missed the podium by just .08.

Applebaum had a big day in setting a new SCIAC meet record in the 100 fly with a 47.89, edging the mark set last year by Marco Conati of CMS (48.01), while winning the race by over 1.5 seconds. He then swam the pivotal leg of the winning medley relay, taking over at the midway point with Pomona-Pitzer leading by one-hundredth of a second, and then dominating his 100 in the fly with a 46.73 to open up a two-second lead. Anderson Breazeale was able to finish it off with the final freestyle leg in 3:17.81 to give CMS 40 key points in its quest for the league title. 

Deedy earned a win in his first SCIAC breaststroke event by edging Isaac Pan of Pomona-Pitzer 55.80 to 56.26.  Henrik Barck started the day for the Stags by coming in second in the 400 IM in 3:59.99, just eclipsing the 4-minute matk to edge Nic Friedley of Whittier for second. Breazeale was second in the 200 free in 1:39.55 to earn All-SCIAC honors as well. 

The final day of the SCIAC Championships will get underway with prelims at 9 a.m. The finals of the men's three-meter dive will also take place, after Cyrus Gaylord led after today's prelims.