The William & Mary men's swimming team opened the spring portion of its schedule on Saturday with a tri-meet on the road, winning nine races and breaking a pair of dual-meet records in the process.  The Tribe fell to host Duke, 147.5-113.5, while Division II powerhouse and No. 2-ranked Queens University won 148-113.

Collecting two of the Tribe's wins and one of the records was junior Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.).  In his first event, he won versus Duke in the 200 fly in a time of 1:50.41, before coming back in the 500 free to win against the Blue Devils in 4:33.69.  That broke his own dual-meet record that he set last fall at the CAA Pod Meet.  Also breaking a dual-meet record was his classmate Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.), who swam 44.98 in the 100 free to break the record he set last fall against UMBC.  Wright earned a double-brace of silver medals, finishing second against both opponents in both the 50 and the 100 free.

Other wins included in the 1,000 free, where senior Carter Kale (Williamsburg, Va.) swam 9:24.11, the seventh-fastest race in school history, to beat Duke.  His classmate Brooks Peterson (Carrollton, Va.) won the 100 breast against Queens in 57.87.  In the 200 back, sophomore Jake Kealy (Wilton, Conn.) won against Queens in 1:52.87, and was matched by junior Ian Bidwell (Pelham, N.Y.) who won the 200 breast against the Royals in 2:05.93.  Junior Ben Skopic (Marriottsville, Md.) finished out the individual winners with a victory over Duke in the 200 IM in 1:52.35.  Rounding out the afternoon was the 400 free relay, where the team of Wright, Ian Thompson (Alexandria, Va.), Graham Hertweck (Greensboro, N.C.), and Jack Doherty (Middletown, Conn.) combined to swim 3:03.28 and win against the Blue Devils.

William & Mary is back in action next weekend at Davidson, taking on the Wildcats at 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 19.