Norton, MA --- WPI Men's Swimming and Diving faced off against familiar rival and fellow NEWMAC member Wheaton, in a competitive dual meet clash at the Balfour Natatorium in Norton, this past Tuesday evening. The Engineers used an all-team effort to defeat the Lyons 169-125.

The Crimson and Gray were led by strong performances by first-years Lucas Brown (Viera, FL) and Luke Vipond (Mahtomedi, MN) in the pool and by Tom Fitzgerald (East Longmeadow, MA) on the diving boards.
 
Fitzgerald claimed a critical double victory in the diving events as his 236.10 and 192.37 scores on the 1 and 3 meter boards were enough for a pair of first-place finishes. Behind him, Aaron Lakin (Hamden, CT) earned a pair of valuable runner-up finishes, scoring 165.45 on the 1-meter board and a season best 160.05 on the 3m board.  

While the Engineers were dominant on the diving boards, it was a closer affair in the swimming pool. After a 2-3 finish in the 400 Medley Relay, Brown distanced himself from the field to win the 1000 free convincingly, stopping the clock in 10:02.75, nearly 20 seconds clear of Wheaton's Kevin Rice. WPI would not win another event until the 200 Fly when junior Lucas Pralle (Wayland, MA) was nearly run down by teammate Deion Chung (Honolulu, HI), with the pair going 1-2, hitting the wall in 1:59.61 and 1:59.85, respectively. Chung was in third at the 150, 1.53 back of Pralle, but his 30.58 last 50 cut over a second out of Pralle's lead. 
 
While the event wins were far fewer than on the women's side, with the Engineers climbing to the top of the podium in just six of the individual events they collected many valuable points from placing second through fourth.  Vipond finished fourth in the 200 free behind teammates Nolan Schlessman (Sudbury, MA) and Gavin McCullough (Colorado Springs, CO) but then jumped up to 3rd in the 100 breaststroke behind Mohammad Eissa
 (Cairo, Egypt) 's second place finish. After the diving break, Vipond pulled out a victory in the 200 breaststroke, stemming the run of Wheaton wins, as his 2:12.66 was more than two seconds clear of the field. 
 
From there the Engineers took control of the meet as McCullough held off yet another late charge from Chung to go 1-2 in the 500. The 100 fly saw an even more lopsided win as Dean Doubek (Arnold, MD) took the win in 52.85, ahead of Pralle and first-year Trey Rippon (Bellingham, WA). After winning the 1st individual event, Brown returned for the last, as his 4:13.56 won the 400 IM by over 10 seconds. 
 
The Engineers now turn their attention to this weekend's Menck Invitational.  The two-day meet begins Friday at 4pm at Roger Williams before wrapping up on Saturday at WPI at 11am.  The Crimson and Gray will honor their seniors as part of Senior Day festivities.
 
Results