The William & Mary men's swimming opened the CAA Pod Meet Saturday on cruise control, winning 21 of the 22 races and opening up big leads on both host Delaware and UNCW. Despite beginning the meet down 26 points to the Blue Hens and 32 to UNCW due to diving, the Tribe leads against Delaware 152-77 and against UNCW 155-80 with six events still to come on Sunday.
The Green and Gold claimed the top spot in every swimming event but the 1650 free against Delaware, and set a pair of dual-meet records while just missing a third. Leading the records was the 400 medley relay of
Will Manion (Haddonfield, N.J.),
Jeremiah O'Donnell (Chapel Hill, N.C.),
Justin Barden (Gordonsville, Va.), and
Justin Barden (Newport News, Va.), combining to win in 3:20.63. In addition to beating the previous record set two years ago at this very same meet, the team's time was the eighth-fastest ever in school history. Barden almost grabbed another record in his individual event, winning the 100 fly in 49.83 and finishing just .03 off his own dual-meet record also set at the 2013 Pod Meet.
O'Donnell was once again W&M's leading points-getter on the day, and accounted for the final record. He swept the 200 IM in 1:52.66, then came back in the afternoon session and blitzed a 3:59.30 win in the 400 IM. That was the first time any Tribe swimmer has broken four minutes in the 400 IM outside of a prelims/finals format, and broke O'Donnell's own dual-meet record (set against ODU in January) by more than three seconds.
Manion and Russell also claimed sweeps in their individual events on the day, with the former taking the 100 back in 49.18 while the former breezed to a 1:40.86 clocking in the 200 free. The two also won in the 200 free relay, teaming with
Joe Eiden (White Plains, N.Y.) and
Kyle Neri (Wallingford, Conn.) to touch first in 1:24.22. Manion, Barden, and Eiden all got another relay gold in the 200 medley relay, joining senior
Andrew Nyce (Vienna, Va.) to finish first in 1:32.63.
Nyce added two individual wins to his resume in the 100 breast, swimming 57.89 seconds to win by a large margin, and Neri was the double-winner in the open 50 free Saturday morning, riding a wave of momentum to a 21.61 win ahead of Eiden's 21.69 silver. Freshman
Eric Grimes (Louisville, Ky.) was the final winner for W&M, beating UNCW and taking second to a lone Delaware swimmer in the 1650 free at 16:20.74.
The CAA Pod Meet wraps up early on Sunday, with races beginning at 10 a.m. in Delaware's Rawstrom Natatorium. The six events to be swum include the 500 free, 100 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 200 fly, and the 400 free relay.
2015 CAA Pod Meet - Newark, Del.
Through 13 of 19 EventsW&M 152-77 Delaware
W&M 155-80 UNCW
