The William & Mary men's swimming team wrapped up its regular season on Saturday afternoon with a convincing win over VMI, 193-66 on Senior Day. The Tribe improved to 7-4 overall with the win, its sixth-straight season of seven or more wins, while the Keydets fell to 6-6 on the year.
- W&M set the tone early with a fast win in the 200 medley relay of 1:30.12. Junior
Colin Demers (Virginia Beach, Va.) led-off, before passing to senior
Brooks Peterson (Carrollton, Va.) and junior
Jack Doherty (Middletown, Va.). Junior
Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.) finished the race with a 19.5 anchor leg, a mere hint of what was to come later. The Tribe's time was the 11th-fastest in school history and the fastest time of the year, just .04 off the pool and dual-meet records.
- After VMI's Stephen Hopta won the 1,650 free, senior
Eric Grimes (Louisville, Ky.) won the 200 free in a season-fast 1:40.80.
- In the 100 back, junior
Ian Thompson (Alexandria, Va.) won the first of two races, stopping the clock in 51.04 seconds.
- His classmate
Ian Bidwell (Pelham, N.Y.) was the next to claim gold, winning the 100 breast in 56.77 seconds, just 0.1 off of his lifetime-best in the event.
- In the 200 fly, junior
Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.), the reigning CAA Swimmer of the Week, won his first of two races on the day in 1:51.31. Sophomore
Christopher Pfuhl (Charlotte, N.C.) was second overall in 1:55.90, resetting his lifetime-best by more than three seconds in the process.
- The junior Wright put on a show in the next two events, sweeping the 50 free and the 100 free in record fashion. First, in the 50 free, he swam 20.17 seconds to shatter his own pool and dual meet records of 20.46 set last year on Senior Day. That was the 14th-fastest single race in school history. Then, following the 15-minute halftime break, Wright was even more impressive to take the 100 free in 44.28 seconds. That broke his own two-week-old dual meet record by 0.7 seconds, and broke the pool record set two years by
Joe Eiden '17 by nearly a full second (45.19). Wright's time is tied for the seventh-fastest single race ever, and is the fastest 100 free in the CAA this season.
- Next came the 200 back, where sophomore
Jake Kealy (Wilton, Conn.) claimed the win in 1:51.24. Junior
Ben Skopic (Marriottsville, Md.) broke his lifetime-best by more than two seconds, finishing second overall in 1:51.61.
- In the 200 breast, freshman
Ian Cobb (Vienna, Va.) won his first race of the season in 2:08.06.
- Balbo won his second race of the day and team-best 22nd of the season in the 500 free, stopping the clock in 4:40.25.
- Thompson's second win was in the 100 fly, touching the wall in 50.07 seconds.
- Freshman
Ryan Bebel (Westfield, N.J.) also picked up his first win of the year, taking the 200 IM in 1:55.64.
- The final race of the day was the 400 free relay, where the Tribe was swimming as an exhibition with the win already locked up. That didn't stop W&M's top team from shattering the pool and dual-meet records, finishing in 3:02 flat to beat the mark of 3:02.53 set in the final meet last year. Wright led things off in 44.79, which would've broken both records for the individual 100 free if he hadn't already gone faster an hour earlier, before handing off to Grimes, Thompson, and Doherty in turn. That was the 16th-fastest race in school history.
Next up for William & Mary is the Janis Hape Dowd Carolina Invitational, Feb. 8-10 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
