The William & Mary men's swimming team flirted with perfection Saturday, coming within nine points of a perfect score before exhibitioning the final two events in a resounding 191-68 win over Davidson on Senior Day. The Tribe ran its season record to 7-1 overall and an undefeated 3-0 at home for the second time in three years, while the Wildcats fell to 1-3 on the season. The W&M senior class finished their four years with a 12-2 (.857) record at home, the best four-year mark since the 1971 seniors went 17-2 (.895) in Williamsburg.
The Tribe won 13 of 14 events on the day, all but the final 400 free relay that the home team exhibitioned, and set two dual-meet records and a pool record along the way. It all started with the 200 medley relay, where the senior quartet of
Will Manion (Haddonfield, N.J.),
Jeremiah O'Donnell (Chapel Hill, N.C.),
Justin Barden (Gordonsville, Va.), and
Billy Russell (Newport News, Va.) blazed to a win in 1:30.36, half a second better than the dual-meet record set earlier this season against Towson. It was also the seventh-fastest race in school history, and just .01 off of the pool record.
All four seniors would go on to win individual races as well, with Manion and O'Donnell claiming two each. The former swept the backstrokes yet again, winning the 100 back with a time of 49.16 seconds, and stopping the clock in the 200 back at 1:48.23. For his part, O'Donnell won the 100 breast in 56.02 seconds, then nearly broke the oldest pool records on the books with a 4:00.28 showing in the 400 IM, just two-tenths behind the 4:00.09 standard set in 1992.
Barden had a big day of his own, winning the 100 fly in record-setting fashion. He was first to the wall in 49.62 seconds, smashing the dual-meet record of 49.80 he set as a sophomore and also eclipsing the 49.66 pool record that had stood since 2012. Russell claimed a win in the 50 free in 21.19, and a fifth senior,
Andrew Nyce (Vienna, Va.), won the 200 breast in 2:04.65.
Freshman
Eric Grimes (Louisville, Ky.) was the king of middle-distances on the day, winning the 200 free in 1:43.14 and then coming back for a 4:39.38 victory in the 500 free. Sophomore
Conrad Zamparello (Midlothian, Va.) also picked up a win, taking the 1,000 free in 9:38.54. Junior
Joe Eiden (White Plains, N.Y.) was the winner in the 100 free with a time of 46.31 seconds, and classmate
Sean Higgins (Wilton, Conn.) stopped the clock in 1:51.90 to claim the 200 fly.
William & Mary has the next two weeks off, before traveling down to Greenville, N.C., on Jan. 30 for a tri-meet with East Carolina and South Carolina.
