The William & Mary men's swimming team took down five records in all on Friday night at the Navy Quad Meet, and got a gutsy performance from its 200 free relay to finish the night 2-1. The host Midshipmen beat the Tribe 181-119, while W&M trounced Johns Hopkins 203-57 and won out over CAA-rival Towson 148-140 in the final race of the meet. The day's action evened W&M's season record at 2-2 overall, and 1-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association.
As is customary in road meets, the Tribe started the day behind 32-0 against Navy and 26-0 against Towson due to diving, but more than held its own when the swimming commenced. The day's performances included 26 wins in 42 races across the three meets, as well as five records broken. That included the school record in the rare 100 IM, which was shattered by freshman
Steven Thalblum (Ashburn, Va.) in 51.34 seconds. That beat the previous record of 51.70 set by
Will Manion '16 against Duke in 2014, and also gave Thalblum the dual-meet and freshman records in the event as well. Also earning a record was junior
Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.), who won the 500 free in 4:35.81 to break his own two-year-old dual-meet mark by 0.1 seconds. In that same race, senior
Carter Kale (Williamsburg, Va.) finished second overall in 4:35.91, tying Balbo's old record.
W&M could be said to have surprised Navy, a perennial top program in the NCAA's mid-major ranks, winning seven races against the Midshipmen. The Tribe also took care of Johns Hopkins, who is a top-five program in Division III, as expected, which left the conference showdown between the Tribe and the Tigers to produce some of the most exciting back-and-forth action. The Green and Gold won nine of the 16 total events (including diving), but trailed Towson by a point, 136-135, as the swimmers lined up for the last event of the day in the 200 free relay. In that race, W&M's top relay of
Ian Thompson (Alexandria, Va.),
Evan Baker (Chantilly, Va.),
Jack Doherty (Middletown, Conn.), and
Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.) swam a blazing 1:22.12 to win both the race and the meet, and break the dual-meet record by a wide margin. Their time was .42 faster than the old mark set two years ago, and was the 11th-fastest race in school history.
In addition to his win in the 500 free, Balbo also swept the 1,000 free earlier in the meet in 9:26.38, the ninth-fastest race in school history, and Wright swept both the 50 free and the 100 free, timing 20.57 and 45.55, respectively, for his six individual wins. Kale swept the 200 fly against all three opponents in 1:50.74, while Thompson won the 100 back against all comers in 50.57 seconds and the 100 fly against Johns Hopkins in 50.53 seconds. The freshman Thalblum picked up two wins vs Hopkins, swimming 1:42.05 in the 200 free in addition to his race in the 100 IM, and also beat Towson in the individual medley as well. Senior
Brooks Peterson (Carrollton, Va.) beat Hopkins in the 100 breast in 57.83 seconds, and sophomore
Jake Kealy (Wilton, Conn.) won against both the Blue Jays and Towson in the 200 back, touching the wall in 1:52.09. The Tribe's final win came in the 200 medley relay, where the team of
Colin Demers (Virginia Beach, Va.), Peterson, Doherty, and Wright combined to swim 1:31.85 to beat Johns Hopkins.
William & Mary is back in action on Saturday at 1 p.m., swimming against UMBC in Baltimore, Md.
