The William & Mary men's swimming team opens Colonial Athletic Association play this Saturday, hosting Towson at 1 p.m. at the Rec Center Pool. Live results from the meet can be found on TribeAthletics.com.
The Meet
W&M will swim its standard 14 event line-up against Towson, with the 200 medley relay, 1000 free, 200 free, 100 back, 100 breast, 200 fly, and 50 free coming before the first break. The second session of the meet will feature the 100 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 500 free, and 100 fly, then following the final break the meet will come to a close with the 200 IM and the 400 free relay.
Scouting the Tribe
W&M is 2-1 on the year after splitting with East Carolina and Gardner-Webb two weeks ago. Sophomore
Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.) won five of his six races in the meet, including breaking W&M's dual-meet record in the 200 fly at 1:51.06. His classmate
Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.) continued his undefeated start to the year in the sprint freestyles, sweeping the 50 and 100 free for the second meet in a row.
Scouting the Tigers
Towson is 1-3 overall early in the season, with their lone win coming over Johns Hopkins against losses to Navy, UMBC, and Georgetown. The Tigers' undisputed leader is reigning CAA Swimmer of the Year and All-American Jack Saunderson, who has won CAA Swimmer of the Week honors each of the past two weeks. Saunderson leads the conference in both fly events, including the 200 fly where he ranks 16th nationally with a provisional-qualifying 1:47.47.
The Series
W&M leads the all-time series with Towson, 18-7, including wins in 11 of the past 12 meets. That also includes five-straight wins in Williamsburg with the last Tigers victory at the Rec Center coming back in 2003.
Notes
After his dual-meet record in the 200 fly at East Carolina, Balbo now owns four in-season records overall ... He also set W&M's dual-meet records in the 500, 1,000, and 1,650 free events last year as a freshman ... The Tribe also set a dual-meet record in the 400 free relay against ECU, winning in 3:03.45 ... That team included Wright, senior
Kyle Neri (Wallingford, Conn.), junior
Eric Grimes (Louisville, Ky.), and sophomore
Jack Doherty (Middletown, Conn.) ... Balbo leads the team standings with seven victories this season so far ... Wright has six wins on the year, second-most on the team, and leads all swimmers with 68.75 points (22.92 per meet) ... Wright broke the Rec Center pool record and the W&M dual meet record in the 50 free against Johns Hopkins, swimming 20.46 seconds ... He hasn't lost a freestyle race since last November ... The Tribe swam the 200 medley relay against Hopkins in 1:30.53, the ninth-fastest time in school history ... W&M has won six in a row at home, the fourth-longest home winning streak in school history dating back to 1965 ... The last time the Tribe lost at home was to Duke on Nov. 7, 2014.
