Men’s Swimming Seventh at NESCACs

The Middlebury men’s swimming and diving team placed seventh at NESCAC Championships last weekend, held at Bowdoin’s LeRoy Greason Pool. Williams won the title with 1,849 points, followed by Amherst (1,750) and Connecticut College (1,468). The Panthers finished with 730 points, only 38 behind sixth-place Bates.

It was a slight fall in the standings for the men, who finished in fifth place overall last year.

“Even though we didn’t place as high as a team overall this year,” Ian Mackay ’14 said, “I think that our hard work and training could be seen in the accomplishments of many individual swimmers on the team.”

The meet was extremely challenging for swimmers, who participated in preliminary sessions in the mornings and finals at night over the course of three days. Middlebury finished day one in seventh and held onto that place all the way to the end.

On the first day, the Panthers got off to a fast start with a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Mackay led off with a flat-start time of 20.72 seconds, putting the Panthers in the lead. Mackay was followed by Stephan Koenigsberger ’16, Captain Mike Oster ’14 and Bryan Cheuk ’16, finishing with a time of 1:24.53.

Mackay dominated the action on Friday, earning the NESCAC title in two events and breaking a record along the way. During preliminaries he set a NESCAC record in the 50-yard butterfly with a time of 21.89 seconds. That night he finished first in the final with a time of 22.01 seconds. Mackay went on to win the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.80 seconds. His prelim time of 20.53 seconds is the 13th-fastest in the nation this year in Division III. He is the also the school and NESCAC record holder in the event, having set the record last year.

Koenigsberger lowered his own Middlebury record with a time of 25.59 seconds in the 50-yard breaststroke preliminaries. He was then disqualified in the final for a false start.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times as for some of us the meet started out a little bit rough,” Koenigsberger said.“However we were all able to rally and everyone swam their hearts out which was just epic to be a part of. Going forward we are only going to get faster and closer as a team.”

On Saturday, Mackay earned a second-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 29.24 seconds. Two events later Koenigsberger set another school record, placing third in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 57.66 seconds.

Koenigsberger continued his hot streak on Sunday, this time finishing fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke. His time of 2:04.97 shattered the Middlebury record of 2:07.02 set back in 2004.

Distance swimmer Michael McGean ’17 excelled in his first collegiate championship meet, finishing seventh in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:37.27) and fourth in the 1650-yard freestyle (16:04.16).

In the one-meter diving event, Dylan Peters ’16 finished sixth with 394.30 points, followed by teammate Skylar Dallmeyer-Drennen ’14 (347.85). They switched spots in the 3-meter event, with Dallmeyer-Drennen placing sixth (389.80) and Peters seventh (337.75).

Those who qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships will have about three weeks to train before the March 19-22 event in Indianapolis, Ind.