The William & Mary men's swimming team opened the 2017-18 season in record fashion Saturday, downing Divsion III power Johns Hopkins, 194-68.  The Tribe improves to 1-0 to start the year, while the Blue Jays fall to 0-1 overall.



The win is W&M's sixth in a row at home dating back to the fall of 2014, and the 13th in the past 14 home meets dating all the way back to the fall of 2012.  The six wins in a row are the fourth-longest home winning streak in school history dating back to 1965.  The Tribe won 13 of the 14 events in the meet, including both relays.  To start the meet, the 200 medley relay squad of Wyatt Grubb (Mechanicsville, Va.), freshman Devin McNulty (Herndon, Va.), Jack Doherty (Middletown, Conn.), and Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.) combined to swim just off the pool record in 1:30.53, which was the ninth-fastest race ever in school history.  Then, the last race of the day saw Tommy Kealy (Wilton, Conn.), Kyle Neri (Wallingford, Conn.), Doherty, and Wright pull away to another win in 3:05.97.

In between those two relays were several outstanding individual efforts.  Wright won both of his individual races, sweeping the 50 and 100 free (45.47) on either side of the first break.  In the 50 free, he also powered to a time of 20.46, breaking both his own Tribe dual meet record and the Rec Center Pool record by 0.1 seconds.  Sophomore Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.) also was a double winner for W&M, winning the 200 fly in 1:51.87 before coming back later and winning the 500 free by a wide margin in 4:41.18.

Single winners on the day included the senior Grubb, 50.87 in the 100 back, as well as junior Carter Kale (Williamsburg, Va.) who won the 1,000 free handily in 9:34.29.  The sophomore class contributed three more wins including Doherty winning the 100 fly in 50.14, Ben Skopic (Marriottsville, Md.) taking the 200 IM in 1:52.84, and Ian Bidwell (Pelham, N.Y.) winning the 200 breast with a time of 2:09.81.  The final two wins went to freshmen making their collegiate debuts.  McNulty turned around from the medley relay to win the 100 breast in 57.48, and Jake Kealy (Wilton, Conn.) led the 200 back from wire-to-wire for a 1:52.48 win.

Event Winners
200 Medley Relay - W&M 1:30.53 (Wyatt Grubb, Devin McNulty, Jack Doherty, Colin Wright), W&M 1:33.93 (Colin Demers, Brooks Peterson, Ian Thompson, Kyle Neri)
1,000 Free - Carter Kale (W&M) 9:34.29, Ian Bidwell (W&M) 9:47.11
200 Free - Brandon Fabian (JHU) 1:41.49, Eric Grimes (W&M) 1:43.70
100 Back - Wyatt Grubb (W&M) 50.87, Jake Kealy (W&M) 52.08
100 Breast - Devin McNulty (W&M) 57.48, Peter Lazorchak (JHU) 59.28
200 Fly - Chris Balbo (W&M) 1:51.87, Kyle Otazu (JHU) 1:55.05
50 Free - Colin Wright (W&M) 20.46, Jack Doherty (W&M) 21.17
100 Free - Colin Wright (W&M) 45.47, Brandon Fabian (JHU) 46.63
200 Back - Jake Kealy (W&M) 1:52.48, Philip Barto (W&M) 1:53.38
200 Breast - Ian Bidwell (W&M) 2:09.81, Marcel Lauzurique (JHU) 2:11.29
500 Free - Chris Balbo (W&M) 4:41.18, Kyle Otazu (JHU) 4:46.03
100 Fly - Jack Doherty (W&M) 50.14, Mark Wilson (JHU) 51.27
200 IM - Ben Skopic (W&M) 1:52.84, Eric Grimes (W&M), 1:55.67
400 Free Relay - W&M 3:05.97 (Tommy Kealy, Kyle Neri, Jack Doherty, Colin Wright), JHU 3:08.94 (Mark Wilson, Alex Carson, Brandon Fabian, Michael Ashmead)

Up Next
William & Mary hits the road next weekend, traveling down to Greenville, N.C., to face East Carolina and Gardner-Webb in a tri-meet beginning at 1 p.m.