WATERVILLE, Maine — Junior Sean Hill (Ellsworth, Maine) won the 500-yard freestyle to lead the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's swimming and diving team this evening at the Maine Collegiate Invite hosted by Colby College at the Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center Aquatics Center in Waterville, Maine.
The Lyons sit in fifth place after the first session on the first day of competition with 162.50 points, behind fourth-place University of Maine-Orono's total of 176. Colby College leads after the first day with 364 points.
Hill posted a personal-record time of 4:38.14 to lead three Lyons in top-eight finishes in the 500-yard freestyle. Sophomore Brian Hixson (Scituate, Mass.) touched the wall at 4:48.62 to place seventh in the race, just ahead of classmate Gavin Cullinan's (Cummings, Ga.) eighth-place effort on a mark of 4:48.93.
Cullinan was even better in the 50-yard backstroke for Wheaton, placing third with a personal-best time of 24.57, while first year Jadyn Arnold (Oakland, Maine) finished just behind Cullinan with a time of 24.64 to finish fourth in the event.
Junior Anton Lopez (Oakland, Calif.) placed fourth in the 50-yard freestyle with a mark of 21.19, before sophomore Will Larson (Iowa City, Iowa) finished sixth with a personal-record clip of 21.45 in the race.
Senior Ben Goho (Lincoln, R.I.) clocked in at 26.80 to finish seventh in the 50-yard breaststroke for the Lyons, while sophomore Andrew Tran (Milton, Mass.) registered a personal-record mark of 1:57.92 to place 10th in the 200-yard individual medley.
Wheaton opened the meet with a fifth-place showing in the 200-yard freestyle relay with Hixson, Larson, Hill and Lopez combining on a season-best time of 1:24.58.
The Lyons combined with their female counterparts to place eighth in the 400-yard mixed medley relay with Tran taking the lead backstroke, before senior Meghan Dickinson's (North Kingstown, R.I.) breaststroke and Hill's butterfly leg. Senior Amelia Butler (New York, N.Y.) anchored the relay with the final 100-yard freestyle to combine for a time of 3:43.92.
Wheaton returns to action tomorrow in Waterville, Maine at 10:00 a.m. for the second of three sessions of the two-day meet.
