WORCESTER -- A pair of school records fell on day two of the NEWMAC swimming and diving championships as Kyle Staubi (Red Hook, NY) and Christopher Smith (Northbridge, MA) rewrote the record book for the 200 Fly and 200 IM.
Winning four titles this evening, the Engineers vaulted into first place, overtaking day one leader, Springfield. MIT now has 495.5 points, followed by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in second place with 317.50. Babson is in third with 290 and Springfield sits in fourth with 261. Rounding out the men's standings are Wheaton (237), WPI (230) and Clark (120).
Smith started the prelims round off with a school record setting time of 1:52.31 in the 200 IM and improved upon that time during the finals, as he earned a spot on the podium with a third place finish, touching the wall in 1:51.91.
Staubi followed that up with a school record, and NCAA 'B' cut time of 1:47.74 in the 200 Fly time trials. Staubi shaved nearly five seconds off of his personal best time to earn a potential spot at the NCAA championships as his currently sits in 10th place nationwide.
Aaron Swann (Venics, FL) earned a second place finish in the 500 Free B final, cutting five seconds off of his season best time and hitting a new personal best, beating his time set at NEWMACs last year. Sam Witscher (Portland, OR) also took part in the B final, touching the wall in 4:57.97.
Austin Aguirre (Santa Maria, CA) joined Smith in the night swim in the 200 IM coming in 17th place in a time of 1:56.52.
The 50 Free trio of Matt Crane (Groton, MA), Jack Brazer (Peterborough, NH) and John Puksta (Nashua, NH) earned 15th, 16th and 19th place finishes respectively with times of 21.51, 21.58 and 21.75, each setting personal bests in the event.
The Engineers had a pair of relay squads in the 200 Free Relay as the foursome of Brazer, Crane, Aguirre and Puksta started the night off with a sixth place finish in 1:24.22 while Nikita Zuev (Wallingford, CT), Gavin McCullough (Geneva, IL), Jack Duryea (Sag Harbor, NY), and Fraser Milligan (Middlebury, VT) took fifth in the B final with a time of 1:27.56.
The night rounded out with the 400 Medley Relay as the WPI A squad of Staubi, Jake Thomas (Wenham, MA), Smith, and Puksta shaved 11 seconds off of their season best to finish with a fifth place finish and time of 3:24.63. The B final featured Swann, Ashton Lyon (Loveland, CO), Zuev and Milligan who combined for a 3:32.43 finish to take 16th place.
The team is back in action on day three of the NEWMAC Championships tomorrow, Saturday, Feb. 18. The swim prelims start at 10 am while diving prelims are set for 1:15 pm. The day two finals will begin at 6 pm and feature the 400 IM, 100 Fly, 200 Free, 100 Breast, 100 Back, Men's 3-meter diving and close out with the 200 Medley Relay.
