The William & Mary men's swimming team opened the 2019-20 season in record-breaking fashion on Saturday, shattering nine pool- and dual-meet records in a 152-110 win over Johns Hopkins. The Tribe starts the year at 1-0, while the Blue Jays fall to 0-1 overall.
How it Happened
- The record parade got started in the very first event, as W&M won the 200 medley relay for the first of 10 wins on the day. Senior
Colin Demers (Virginia Beach, Va.) led-off the team before giving way to
Devin McNulty (Herndon, Va.) and
Jack Doherty (Middletown, Conn.), and senior
Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.) brought the team home in 1:29.21, more than three-quarters of a second faster than the same team went in January of 2018 (1:30.08). That performance was the eighth-fastest race in school history, and broke both the pool and dual-meet records in the event.
- Next was the 200 free, where Wright swam 1:40.47 for the win, and broke the pool record of 1:40.61 set by
Billy Russell '16 in his senior season. That was also the first of two individual wins on the day for Wright.
- Demers earned an individual win of his own in the 100 back, timing 50.36 seconds. He is the reigning conference champion in that event.
- Senior
Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.) matched his classmate Wright with two individual wins, the first coming in the 200 fly where he swam 1:51.49.
- Another senior,
Ian Thompson (Alexandria, Va.) was the next man on top of the podium, touching the wall in 20.91 seconds to win the 50 free.
- After the first intermission, Wright put on another show in winning the 100 free, swimming 44.36. While that was shy of his own pool and dual-meet marks of 44.28, it was the 16th-fastest race ever at W&M. With his second win, Wright moved past
Mike Lovett '00 and into seventh-place on the all-time wins list with 54.
- Johns Hopkins picked up wins the 200 back and the 200 breast, but Balbo put the Tribe back on top in the 500 free, pulling away from the field over the back-half of the race to win in 4:38.62. That was Balbo's 50th career win, making him just the seventh man in the last 30 years to reach that mark.
- Next was the 100 fly, where Doherty made it look easy with a 49.13 win. That was nearly a full four-tenths under the previous dual-meet record, set by
Justin Barden '16 in his final dual meet (49.62).
- Doctoral candidate
Ben Skopic (Marriottsville, Md.) added another dual-meet record in the 200 IM, stopping the clock in 1:51.15. That was 0.61 under the record previously held by
Will Manion '16 since 2015.
- The meet was already decided by the start of the final race, the 200 free relay, but the Tribe made sure it was one of the most exciting races of the day. Wright started things off with an astonishing 19.95 lead-off split, shattering his own pool and dual-meet records set in the final meet of the regular season last year (20.17). That was also an NCAA provisional-qualifying mark, and though the season is still young, it ranks Wright third in the country in the 50 free. Next was Thompson and Doherty, who split 20.09 and 20.17 respectively, before sophomore
Graham Hertweck (Greensboro, N.C.) brought the team home in an easy 20.78. Combined, the team swam 1:20.99, obliterating the pool record of 1:23.23 set by W&M back in 2013, and the dual-meet record of 1:22.12 set last fall against Navy. That was the ninth-fastest race in school history, and currently ranks No. 2 in the NCAA this season.
Up Next
William & Mary hits the road for the first time next weekend, taking on long-time rival East Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 12, at 1 p.m.
