Norton, MA --- Andrew Lybarger (Atlanta, GA)
picked up WPI's top two finishes of the day and earned an NCAA
provisional qualifier in the process, leading the way for WPI Men's
Swimming and Diving to a fifth-place standing after two days of the
NEWMAC Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted by Wheaton
College. WPI has 208 points after 13 events with the final seven
events to come on Sunday. MIT remained the event leader for the
second straight day.
Lybarger's time in the 100-yard butterfly (51.21) gave the
sophomore a fifth-place result for the Engineers' top finish on
Saturday and was the Atlanta native's fourth top-10 finish at the
NEWMACs thus far. In Friday's action, Lybarger earned 10th place in
the 50-yard freestyle and fourth place as part of the 200-yard
freestyle relay, along with Mason Ruffing (Stone
Mountain, GA), Steve Rose (Worcester, MA) and
Lee Chiang (Lexington, MA). Then in the final
event on Saturday evening, the same quartet swam to another
fourth-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay final
(7:07.56).
The relay team of James Perez-Rogers
(Woodstock, NY), Rob Cakounes (Chelmsford, MA),
Alford Green (Portmore, Jamaica) and Rose also
earned a top-10 finish on day two, taking sixth place in the
200-yard medley relay (1:40.49). WPI's second relay of Eric
Spazzarini (Enfield, CT), Cullen O'Brien
(Bar Harbor, ME), Spencer Coffin (Poughkeepsie,
NY) and Nathan Lee (Bryan, TX) wasn't far behind
in 12th (1:43.34).
Perez-Rogers also swam in the 100-yard backstroke, earning 12th
place (55.31), while Cakounes added a 13th-place finish in the
100-yard breaststroke to his relay result. Green appeared in the
100-yard butterfly, taking home 15th place (54.18). O'Brien had a
14th-place swim in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:03.49), while
Ruffing's contributed a 14th-place showing in the 100-yard
butterfly (53.96) and Chiang a 14th-place mark in the 200-yard
freestyle (1:47.01).
Other top performances for the Crimson and Gray included
Dave Cancel (Chicopee, MA) in the one-meter dive
(13th - 289.55) and JP Miralda (Tegucigalpa,
Honduras) in the 100-yard backstroke (16th - 56.80)
WPI will be back in action for the final day of the NEWMAC
Championships on Sunday at Wheaton.
Results
