The William & Mary men's swimming team continued to do what it does best, swim well in the morning, on Friday at the Colonial Athletic Association Championships, advancing 20 of 21 entries to tonight's finals in five events. 16 of the Tribe's qualifiers advanced to the championship finals, and the projected scores after the morning session finds W&M maintaining its position atop the leaderboard with 492 points. Drexel is up to 345 points, just ahead of UNCW in third with 315 points.
400 IM
- The first event of the morning was the 400 IM, with the Tribe picking up the first of its two 1-2-3 sweeps of the sessions.
- Junior
Chris Balbo (Short Hills, N.J.), the 2017 champion in the event, will have pole position for the finals after timing a season-fast 3:54.35.
- He finished just ahead of teammate
Carter Kale (Williamsburg, Va.), who set a lifetime-best by 3.6 seconds to take second overall in 3:54.51. Kale now ranks 10th all-time among Tribe athletes.
- Finishing third was junior
Ben Skopic (Marriottsville, Md.), the reigning champ, who timed an easy 3:57.41 to win his heat.
- Freshman
Kade Younger (Newport News, Va.) gave W&M four in the finals, and will swim in the consolation heat tonight after timing 4:09.89 for 13th overall.
100 Fly
- Perhaps the most exciting race of the session came in the 100 fly. Junior
Jack Doherty (Middletown, Conn.) smashed the school record by more than three-quarters of a second to earn the second seed tonight in 46.78 seconds. In addition to being an NCAA provisional qualifier, it broke the record of 47.55 set by
Justin Barden '16 in 2015. Doherty also broke Barden's 50 fly record (21.91) set in the same race, making the turn at 21.59 seconds today.
- He'll be joined in the championship finals by classmate
Ian Thompson (Alexandra, Va.) and redshirt-senior
Evan Baker (Chantilly, Va.), who swam 48.27 seconds and 48.69 seconds, respectively. Thompson's time was a lifetime-best, ranking him fifth in school history, and was the 13th-fastest race ever at W&M. Baker is the sixth seed tonight after swimming a season-best time in prelims.
- Freshman
Jack Galbraith (Vienna, Va.) advanced to the consolation finals in his first CAA event, swimming 49.27 seconds for 10th place, and he'll be joined in the heat by senior
Joey Rento (Newport News, Va.), who was 15th in a season-fast 49.70 seconds.
- Freshman
Steven Thalblum (Ashburn, Va.) is the first alternate for tonight's finals in 17th place, but swam a season-best 49.83 seconds to improve himself to 15th all-time at W&M.
| Place |
Athlete |
Time |
Notes |
| 2. |
Jack Doherty |
46.78 |
A finals, NCAA Provisional, School Record, PB |
| 5. |
Ian Thompson |
48.27 |
A finals, PB, #13 perf, #5 ath |
| 6. |
Evan Baker |
48.69 |
A finals, SB |
| 10. |
Jack Galbraith |
49.27 |
B finals |
| 15. |
Joey Rento |
49.70 |
B finals, SB |
| 17. |
Steven Thalblum |
49.83 |
First alternatre, SB, #15 ath |
200 Free
- W&M got another 1-2-3 sweep of the morning in the 200 free, coming on just three entries in the event.
- Junior
Colin Wright (Williamsburg, Va.) led the way with a lifetime-best performance of 1:36.96, the fourth-fastest time in school history. He moves up slightly to third all-time among Tribe athletes.
- Sophomore
Christopher Pfuhl (Charlotte, N.C.) continued his breakout week with a lifetime-best of his own, stopping the clock in 1:38.02 for second overall. That improved his best by more than a second-and-a-half, and was the 11th-fastest race ever at W&M. Pfuhl moved himself up to seventh all-time among Tribe athletes.
- Senior
Eric Grimes (Louisville, Ky.) nearly added a third lifetime-best, just missing his best mark by 0.04 and finished third in a season-fast time of 1:38.36.
100 Breast
- In the 100 breast, sophomore
Devin McNulty (Herndon, Va.) smashed his lifetime-best and finished second overall this morning in 54.71 seconds. That was the fifth-fastest time ever at W&M, and ranks McNulty second all-time behind only school record-holder
Andrew Strait '14.
- Also swimming a lifetime-best was senior
Brooks Peterson (Carrollton, Va.), third in 55.12 to cut nearly a full second off of his previous best. Peterson's race was the 12th fastest in school history, and moves him up to fifth all-time among athletes.
- Junior
Ian Bidwell (Pelham, N.Y.) gave W&M three personal bests and three in the A finals, stopping the clock in 55.35 seconds for seventh overall. That's also the rank Bidwell now occupies in school history.
- Freshman
Ryan Bebel (Westfield, N.J.) advanced to the B finals tonight, finishing 11th overall in 56.81 seconds.
100 Back
- The final event of the session was the 100 back, and the Tribe closed it out in style with all four its entries making the championship finals.
- Junior
Colin Demers (Virginia Beach, Va.), who set the school record in the 50 back on Wednesday night, picked up right where he left off with a lifetime-best time of 48.13 and the top seed in tonight's finals. That cut a tenth off of his previous best, and was the 13th fastest race in school history. With that performance, Demers now ranks third all-time among Tribe athletes.
- Second place in the prelims went to sophomore
Jake Kealy (Wilton, Conn.), swimming a season and collegiate-best time of 48.83 seconds. That moved Kealy up to fifth all-time at W&M.
- Junior
Lee Bradley (Crestwood, Ky.) advanced in fifth place with a season-fast time of 49.50 seconds.
- The freshman Galbraith made his second finals of the day with a seventh-place finish in 49.60 seconds, just 0.01 off of his all-time best set two weeks ago.
Finals in all five events, as well as the 3-meter diving and 400 medley relay, begins tonight at 6 p.m. live on CAA.TV.
2019 CAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships
Projected Team Scores After Friday Prelims
1. William & Mary 492
2. Drexel 345
3. UNCW 315
4. Towson 262
5. Delaware 74
