MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – It came down to the wire but the Wesleyan men's swimming and diving team accumulated just enough points to secure a sweep in a home tri-meet on Tuesday afternoon. The Cardinals (3-4) toppled Hamilton by just two points (135.5-133.5) while easily defeating Clark (211.5-50.5) to secure a two-win day. Wesleyan's triumph over Hamilton marks the first Cardinal victory over the Continentals in program history (0-13 previously).
Wesleyan secured the two wins thanks in large part to first place results in eight-of-15 total events including three individual victories for
Mason Polaner '24 and three combined wins (two individual, one relay) for
Harrison Hong '25 as well as a pair of diving victories for
Jake Rybczyk '24.
The Cardinals opened with a split-victory in the 100 medley as Hong,
Jeremy Kim '25,
Ryan Kobayashi '25 and
Richard Ettinger '23 combined for a tie for first place with a Hamilton group, clocking in at 45.41 seconds. Wesleyan's B group of
Sebastian Adames '25,
Lucas Pirner '25,
Sam Anderson '24 and
Alex Demis '25 took third place with a time of 46.11 seconds.
Polaner got his day started with his first of three wins as he won the 200 free by more than four seconds, touching the wall at 1:45.15. He later took the 25 free with a time of 10.41 seconds and finished off an incredible outing with a win in the 500 free where his time of 4:50.23 was more than six seconds faster than the runner-up.
Hong continued on after the relay victory to take first place in the 25 and 50 back events. He opened with a time of 11.83 seconds in the 25 back and then posted a 24.81 in the 50 back later in the day. Hong nearly made it three individual wins as he was the runner-up in the 25 fly with a time of 10.55 seconds, finishing just 0.16 seconds behind Jack Jee of Hamilton.
The diving events went Rybczyk's way as he started with a score of 193.40 in the 3 meter and followed with a 211.50 in the 1 meter to take first place in both events.
John Kim '24 was the runner-up in the 1 meter with a score of 153.95.
Ettinger followed up his win in the 100 medley with a second place finish in the 25 back (12.01 seconds) and 50 back (25.49) while he was third in the 100 IM (55.23) to lead the Cardinals in that event.
Other top individual performances on the day included
Andrew Kim '25 taking third place in the 25 breast (12.66 seconds) and 50 breast (28.53), Anderson clocked in at 23.82 seconds to tie for second in the 50 fly,
Sekander Ali '25 tied for third-best in the 25 free (10.55) and was third in the 500 free (5:03.86). Wesleyan's top group took second place in the 100 free relay as Polaner, Ali, Adames and Demis were runner-up with a time of 41.95 seconds.
Wesleyan enjoys an off-week before a busy weekend starting with a trip to Springfield for a tri-meet with Roger Williams and the hosts Springfield on Saturday, January 15 starting at 1:00 PM. Then the Cardinals will play host to Trinity in a dual meet set for Sunday, January 16 at 2 PM.
