Ithaca, NY --- In its first meet of the 2023-24 season, the WPI men's swimming and diving team came away with a split in a double dual in New York against Hobart and host Ithaca on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Engineers knocked off Hobart 236-49 but fell to the Bombers 175-123.
 
The squad started things off with a 400 Medley relay victory and finished with five first place finishes and 34 top-5 finishes on the day.
 
Jacob Antonovich (Fairfax, VT), Fraser Milligan (Middlebury, VT), Christopher Smith (Northbridge, MA) and Nolan Schlessman (Sudbury, MA) finished the opening race with a time of 3:35.33 for the first place finish. 
 
Smith added another first place finish to his total with a 53.80 finish in the 100 Back as Austin Aguirre (Santa Maria, CA) finished fifth 57.28 in the same race. Later in the meet, Smith touched the wall first for the third time of the day with a 1:58.66 200 IM finish. Another twosome of Engineers earned top-5 finishes in the event with Aguirre finishing 2:02.68 in third place and Matthew Segui (Stanton, CA) earning a fifth place, 2:06.09 finish to close out the individual events. 
 
Owen Krause (Potomac Falls, VA) followed Smith's initial individual victory with a first place finish in the 100 Breast in a time of 59.31 while Jake Thomas (Wenham, MA) ended the race in fifth place with a time of 1:03.01. 
 
Lucas Pralle (Wayland, MA) pulled in the next first place finish for the Engineers with a 52.87 finish in the 100 Fly. Nikita Zuev (Wallingford, CT) followed up with a fourth place finish in 54.83 in the same event. 
 
In the distance events of the day Aaron Swann (Venice, FL) finished in second place in the 500 and 1000 Free. He touched in 5:06.83 in the 500 while finishing 10:41.71 in the 1,000. He was joined by Eli Budde (Eldersburg, MD) who finished in fifth in the 500 with a time of 5:15.88 and Angus Zuwallack (Falmouth, MA)  in the 1,000 who finished in fifth in a time of 10:55.26. 
 
A trio of Engineers finished in the top-5 in each of the individual freestyle events on the day. Antonovich led the way in the 200 Free with a time of 1:48.87 and was joined by Pralle (4th, 1:51.14) and Aidan Greenfield (Northport, NY) (5th, 1:51.69). Doubek, Schlessman and Jack Brazer (Bolton, MA) went second, third, fourth in the 50 Free with times of 21.95, 21.96 and 22.04 respectively. In the 100 Free Schlessman, Sean Tesoro (Reading, MA) and Greenfield went 2-3-4 with times of 48.41, 49.38 and 50.28 respectively. 
 
Doubek also took third in the 50 Fly (23.37) and later finished second in the 50 Back with a time of 24.93, followed by Smith in third place in 25.13. Krause and Aguirre also went 2-3 in the 50 Breast with times of 27.15 and 27.58. 
 
On the diving side of things, Alex Masiero (Richmond, MA) and Val Corrente (New York, NY) finished in third and fifth place in the 3 meter dive. Masiero took third with a score of 173.65 while Corrente earned a 167.70 total. 
 
In the 1-meter dive, Corrente came out on top with a fourth place finish with a 186.85 total while Masiero netted a 173.55 score to finish fifth. 
 
The event finished out with a second place, 400 Free Relay finish as Doubek, Schlessman, Pralle and Andrew Van De Water (Stratham, NH) combined for a 3:13.35 finish. 
 
The Engineers are back at it next Saturday, Oct. 21 when they host the Worcester City Championships.