The William & Mary men's swimming team opened the 2016-17 season with a bang on Saturday, winning big over Georgetown and Johns Hopkins on the road. The Tribe improved to 2-0 with the victories, while the Hoyas fell to 0-3 and the Blue Jays opened at 1-1 overall (defeating Georgetown). W&M won out over the Hoyas 222-40, while beating Hopkins 187-75.
The Tribe's win over Georgetown set three major school records - most points scored in a 16-event format (222), fewest allowed (40), and largest margin of victory (182 points). However, the score was not the only record broken, as W&M set two dual-meet records as well as two facility records, and three new entries on the all-time lists.
Among the records set was the 500 free, where freshman
Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.) swam 4:36.12 to break the oldest dual-meet record (and overall oldest swimming record) on the Tribe's book,
Chris Robinson's '00 4:36.13 that he swam against Old Dominion in December of 1997. He finished second overall in the race, defeating all opponents from Georgetown in the process. Also breaking a dual-meet record was sophomore
Carter Kale (Williamsburg, Va.), who timed 9:31.28 in his first Tribe race to finish second overall in the 1000 free, again beating all Georgetown opponents. His performance lowered the record of 9:33.47, previously held by
Kemp Pettyjohn '15 against Old Dominion in January of 2013. Kale's time was also the ninth-fastest ever swum at W&M, and improved him to seventh all-time amongst Tribe athletes.
Other notable performances included freshman
Ian Bidwell (Pelham, N.Y.), who swam 9:39.48 in the 1000 to finish right behind Kale. That improved him to 14th on the all-time athletes list. In the 100 back, his classmate
Colin Demers (Virginia Beach, Va.) beat all comers with a time of 51.32 seconds, ranking him 15th all-time among W&M athletes. The Tribe's 200 medley relay started the meet off with a pool record of 1:33.37, thanks to the efforts of
Wyatt Grubb (Mechanicsville, Va.),
Alex Montes de Oca (Orange, Va.),
Evan Baker (Chantilly, Va.), and
Joe Eiden (White Plains, N.Y.). Montes de Oca later set a second pool record, winning the 200 back against both schools in a time of 1:51.83.
The Tribe had a number of other winning performances as well. Eiden won both of his individual events against both schools for a team-best four victories, winning the 200 free (where he's the defending CAA Champion) in 1:41.98 and the 100 free in 46.06 seconds. Freshman
Ben Skopic (Marriottsville, Md.) matched him with four wins, sweeping the 200 breast in 2:08.92 and the 200 IM in 1:53.40, and sophomore
Brooks Peterson (Carrollton, Va.) defeated Georgetown in the 100 breast at 59.43 seconds. Freshman
Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.) had the day's best time in the 50 free at 21.02 seconds, while classmate
Jack Doherty (Middletown, Conn.) swam 50.92 seconds to sweep the 100 fly, and junior
Tommy Kealy (Wilton, Conn.) won the 200 fly in 1:52.10. The 400 free relay team of
Kyle Neri (Wallingford, Conn.),
Alex Henderson (Hopewell, Va.), Doherty, and Eiden wrapped up the day with a final win, touching the wall in 3:07.31.
William & Mary is back in the pool Oct. 21-22, heading to Christiansburg, Va., for a quad meet hosted by Virginia Tech. In addition to the Hokies, the Tribe will face off with West Virginia and Duke.
