The William & Mary men's swimming team won 13 of 28 events Saturday, coming up just nine points shy against East Carolina, as well as falling to No. 23 South Carolina.  The Tribe finished its regular season at 7-3 overall, its third-straight year winning seven meets.

Highlighting the day's action was the 400 free relay, which beat all comers in a dual-meet record time of 3:03.67 that was also the 14th-fastest race in school history.  The quartet included senior Will Manion (Haddonfield, N.J.), junior Joe Eiden (White Plains, N.Y.), sophomore Kyle Neri (Wallingford, Conn.), and senior Billy Russell (Newport News, Va.).  On the other end of the meet, Manion and Neri joined with seniors Jeremiah O'Donnell (Chapel Hill, N.C.) and Justin Barden (Gordonsville, Va.) to swim the 200 medley relay in 1:32.70, taking second to both the Pirates and the Gamecocks.

Saturday also a big day individually with Manion, who swept the two backstroke events for a perfect 17-0 record in dual-meet backstroke races this season.  He won the 100 back in 49.63 seconds, then came back for two more wins in the 200 back at 1:49.35.  That raises his season total to a career-best 20 wins this year, the 11th 20-win season in school history, and gives him 349.5 total points, 10th-best ever and just 124 from the school record.

Russell also had a remarkable day, sweeping the 200 free in 1:40.49.  He totaled 40 points overall, surpassing 1,000 points in his illustrious career.  He's just the sixth swimmer in school history over 1,000 points, and his season total of 334.5 points is just 31.5 from his career-high set as a sophomore.  O'Donnell picked up a pair of wins against ECU, swimming the 200 breast in 2:05.47 and the 200 IM in 1:53.98, raising his season total to 18 wins.  He also now has a career-best 327 points on the year, the 13th-best single-season total in school history.

Also picking up wins on the day was Eiden, who swept all opponents with a strong 45.69 race in the 100 free.  Sophomore Tommy Kealy (Wilton, Conn.) had the final win of the afternoon, stopping the clock in the 200 fly at 1:54.28 to beat every ECU swimmer.

With the dual-meet portion of the season now complete, William & Mary turns its attention to post-season invitationals.  First up is the Carolina College Invitational, scheduled for next Friday-Sunday (Feb. 5-7) in Chapel Hill, N.C.  The Tribe will be sending a small crew to the meet, which functions as season-ending meet for those athletes not selected to the CAA Championships squad.