MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The Wesleyan men's swimming & diving team earned a comfortable 170-121 win over visiting Trinity on Wednesday afternoon from the Wesleyan Natatorium.
Mason Polaner '24 continued his strong season, posting three of the seven Cardinal first place finishes in 16 events. Wesleyan (4-6) has won three of their last five while Trinity (0-4) was competing for the first time since December 4.
Polaner certainly was the star on the day for the Cardinals as the sophomore distance specialists in the freestyle started his day off with a battle in the 1000 free. Racing against Matthew Brown for the majority of the race, Polaner touched just 0.21 seconds ahead of a hard-charging Brown at the end but it was good enough for a win as Polaner's time was 10:05.75 compared to 10:05.96 for Brown.
In the next event, it was Polaner again victorious by a narrow margin as he touched in 1:50.37 compared to his teammate
Sekander Ali '25 who was runner-up with a time of 1:50.44 in the 200 free. His first commanding win came in the 500 free as his time of 4:55.25 was nearly 10 seconds faster than the runner-up, Tadija Ciric (Trinity).
Polaner made it an unblemished day in the final event of the day, as he combined with
Richard Ettinger '23, Ali and
Collin Holson '25 as the group combined to take the event win with a time of 1:31.57 in the 200 free relay.
Tran was busy throughout the day, starting by helping Wesleyan secure a second place finish in the 400 medley relay, combining with
Harrison Hong '25,
Andrew Kim '25 and Ali for a time of 3:41.31. Next was Tran's first of two wins on the day as he secured first place in the 200 fly with a time of 1:56.04. Later in the day, Tran was runner-up by a mere 0.39 seconds as he placed second with a time of 52.62 seconds in the 100 fly. His final event was the 200 IM wherein he was more than a full second faster than runner-up Matthew Brown in the final leg which was good enough for a time of 2:00.79.
The lone remaining event victor on the day was
Fred Li '25 as the first-year bested his teammate Holson with a time of 23.34 seconds in the 50 free. Holson posted 23.58 seconds.
Wesleyan heads on the road for a big meet on Saturday, January 22 as the Cardinals will take on Colby in Waterville, Maine which is the site of the 2022 NESCAC Championships. Competition is set to begin at 12:00 PM.
