The William & Mary men's swimming team showed off its strength up and down the line-up on Saturday in the first two sessions of the CAA Pod Meet, taking leads against both UNCW and host Delaware with just six events remaining. The Tribe leads the Seahawks 123-106, and 166-37 over the Blue Hens.
Leading the way on Saturday was junior
Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.), who went undefeated on the day and broke the dual-meet record in both of his events. Balbo also broke the Delaware pool record in the 400 IM that had stood since 1986, previously held by 1988 Olympic silver medalist and world record-holder Dave Wharton. Balbo's morning saw two wins in the 1,650 free in 15:44.78, shattering the previous dual-meet record by nearly 15 seconds that had been set in this same meet a year ago by his teammate
Carter Kale (Williamsburg, Va.). In the afternoon, Balbo beat both of his opponents in the 400 IM, swimming 3:58.32 for the win and the record. The previous dual-meet record in the event was set in the 2015 Pod Meet by school record-holder Jeremiah O'Donnell '16, at 3:59.30.
W&M also swept the 200-yard relays on the day. In the morning, the team of
Jack Doherty (Middletown, Conn.),
Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.),
Evan Baker (Chantilly, Va.), and
Ian Thompson (Alexandria, Va.) combined to swim 1:23.18 with two legs under 20.5, and in the afternoon, Baker and Wright provided the back-end behind
Colin Demers (Virginia Beach, Va.) and
Brooks Peterson (Carrollton, Va.) as W&M swam 1:31.93 to win the 200 medley relay.
Individually both Wright and Doherty swept their signature events. Wright swam the 50 free in 20.49, just .03 off of his own dual-meet record, and extended his season-opening win streak to 12-0. Doherty, meanwhile, swam 49.77 in the 100 fly to beat all opponents. Freshman
Steven Thalblum (Ashburn, Va.) won over all others in the 200 IM, touching the wall in 1:53.49 to lead a Tribe sweep of the top three spots.
W&M also had four more wins over Delaware, including in the 400 medley relay. That quartet was Thompson, Peterson, Doherty, and senior
Eric Grimes (Louisville, Ky.), and combined to swim 3:23.40. Grimes went on to win the 200 free over the Blue Hens in 1:42.26, while Peterson swam 58.44 to take the 100 breast and Thompson clocked 51.35 seconds to win the 100 back.
The CAA Pod Meet finishes on Sunday, Nov. 4, with six events starting at 10 a.m.
