New London, NH --- The WPI Men's Swimming and Diving team opened the 2010-11 campaign Saturday afternoon with a 152.5 - 98.5 road win over Colby-Sawyer. Six different Engineers recorded multiple wins and the Crimson and Gray established eight new pool records.
Senior Mason Ruffing (Stone Mountain, GA) took home top prize in the 1000-yard freestyle (10:48.55) and 400-yard individual medley (4:35.64) while classmate Lee Chiang (Lexington, MA) hit the wall first in the 100-yard (49:30) and 200-yard (1:52.59) freestyles.
Junior Andrew Lybarger (Decatur, GA) swam a winning time of 54.29 in the 100-yard butterfly and a time of 24.52 in the 50-yard butterfly. Sophomore Cullen O'Brien (Bar Harbor, ME) swept the 50-yard (30.73) and 100-yard breaststrokes (1:06.53)
Sophomore Eric Spazzarini (Enfield, CT) turned in first place finishes in the 100-yard backstroke (1:03.05) and 500-yard freestyle (5:08.51).
The 50-yard backstroke belonged to sophomore James Perez-Rogers (Woodstock, NY) who finished first with a 27.90, while freshman Ben Collins (Newbury, MA) took the 50-yard freestyle (23.51).
O'Brien, Spazzarini, Lybarger and freshman Khalil Badran (Beirut, Lebanon) won the 400-yard medley relay and posted a time of 3:53.61. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Chiang, Lybarger, Badran, and Collins were victorious with a 1:31.38 time.
Rookie Jeff Havill (Orange, MA) highlighted a strong showing in the diving events with wins in both the one and three-meter events.
WPI is back in action next weekend, co-hosting the New England Invitational with Keene State at Upper Valley Aquatic Center in White River Junction, VT.
