WORCESTER -- WPI's Men's Swimming and Diving edged out Division II Southern Connecticut State University in a dual meet hosted in Worcester on Friday, the 14th of November. The Engineers (4-2) scored 152.50 points to Southern's 131.50, with scoring stopping after the men's 100 fly.
Despite that, the meet was always going to be a close back and forth battle, but the Engineers capitalized when it mattered most, opening up the meet with a 1-2 finish in the 200-medley relay. The relay of
Angad Ahluwalia (Attleboro, MA),
Kyle Sundberg (East Northport, NY),
Dean Doubek (Arnold, MD), and
Nolan Schlessman (Sudbury, MA) posted the top time of 1:36.94, finishing less than a second ahead of WPI's 2nd relay. Doubek and Schlessman each added to their relay victory with individual event victories of their own. Schlessman, a junior, too the 100 breaststroke in 1:01.44, just out touching Sundberg, who claimed 2nd in 1:01.60. In the 100 free, Schlessman posted a time of 48.49, to take 2nd to Doubek's winning time and season best of 47.09.
The 100 free wasn't Doubek's lone season best as, like fellow junior Schlessman, he finished runner-up to a teammate. The Maryland native posted a time of 52.45 to finish behind
Christopher Smith (Northbridge, MA) and his 52.02 in the 100 fly, but in the process bettering his 53.61 from October. Doubek and Schlessman teamed up again for the 200 free relay, where, along with
Sean Tesoro (Reading, MA) and
Angelo Reade (Newburgh, NY) they posted the fastest time of the evening going 1:26.02.
While Smith finished 2nd in the medley relay, he never tasted defeat after that claiming the titles in the 100 and 200 back as well as the aforementioned 100 fly. Smith led an impressive 1-2-3 finish in the 100 back, as his 54.16 led out teammate Ahluwalia's 2nd place time of 55.07 and
Andrew Van De Water (Stratham, NH) 3rd place result of 56.81. In the 200, Smith's time was of 1:58.84 was the lone sub-2:00 minute result, as he took the victory with fellow Engineer
Lucas Pralle (Wayland, MA) claiming 3rd in 2:05.85.
Pralle had a tough line-up as, in addition to swimming fly on the medley relay and placing 3rd in the 200 back, he claimed top honors in the 200 fly (1:58.33), and was WPI's 3rd place finisher in the exhibitioned 400 IM, finishing behind first-years
Lucas Brown (Viera, FL) and
Deion Chung (Honolulu, HI). Both Brown and Chung put up very strong performances, with Brown equaling Smith's three individual victories. In addition to swimming the fastest time in the 400 IM (4:13.50), Brown went 1-3 in the 1000 with Chung, with the pair recording times of 9:59.89 and 10:27.98, respectively. Brown also climbed to the top of the podium in the 500 free, going 4:53.18 for the win.
The Engineers' achievements were not limited to the pool alone, as
Tom Fitzgerald (East Longmeadow, MA) and
Aaron Lakin (Hamden, CT) took 2nd and 4th place on the 1m board, scoring 197.47 and 168.68 points, respectively. On the 3m board, the pair performed better, putting up the top and 3rd highest scores of the evening, collecting 214.20 and 150.23 points.
Catch the WPI Men's Swimming and Diving team next in action as they head to Western Mass for a showdown with hosts Williams, as well as fellow visiting teams Trinity and Tufts. Action kicks off at 1:00 pm on Saturday, the 22nd of November.
Results
