William & Mary freshman Ryan Bebel (Westfield, N.J.) earned the final Colonial Athletic Association Men's Swimmer of the Week award on Tuesday, after an outstanding weekend at the Janis Hape Dowd Nike Invitational.  This is the first award of Bebel's young career, and the fifth of the season for the Tribe men's swimming team.

Bebel swam a near perfect progression over the weekend, setting six lifetime-bests in his three events and earning a pair of silver medals.  His meet began on Friday in the 200 IM, where he improved 1.3 seconds in the prelims and then another 0.44 in finals to finish second overall in 1:52.12, the sixth-fastest time in the CAA this season.  Next up was the 100 breast, shaving 0.7 in prelims and then another 0.18 for the finals to sixth overall in 56.43 seconds.  That moved Bebel up to ninth in the league this year, and 12th all-time among Tribe athletes.  On the final day, Sunday, the rookie improved his best by more than a second in prelims, and then cut another second in the finals for his second silver medal in 2:01.37.  With that race, Bebel shot to the top of the CAA seedings for next week's conference championship, and up to fifth in school history all-time.  Only former CAA Swimmers of the Year Andrew Strait '14 and Jeremiah O'Donnell '16, freshman record-holder Josh Zimmt '17, and his teammate junior Ben Skopic (Marriottsville, Md.) rank ahead of Bebel in the 200 breast.

Bebel and his teammates return to action next week, Feb. 20-23, at the CAA Championships in Christiansburg, Va.  The Tribe has won the last four conference titles, and will be looking to become the 25th program in the history of the Colonial Athletic Association (across every sport) to win five championships in a row.