NORTON, Mass. – Senior Ben Goho (Lincoln, R.I.) won both of his events for the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's swimming & diving team, but it wasn't enough as visiting Worcester Polytechnic Institute went home with a 174-114 victory this evening at Balfour Natatorium on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.
The Lyons dip to 4-5, while the Engineers improve to 5-4 on the season.
WPI won nine of 16 events for the meet, including a pair of 1-2-3 sweeps in two events.
Goho led Wheaton with a pair of breaststroke victories. He clocked in at 27.26 in the 50-yard race, before posting a top time of 59.66 in the 100-yard event. Sophomore Andrew Tran (Milton, Mass.) tallied 17 points for Wheaton, winning the 50-yard backstroke with a clip of 24.79 to go with second-place efforts in the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley.
Wheaton bookended the meet with wins in both relay events. Tran opened the 200-yard medley relay with the backstroke, before yielding to Goho's breaststroke, followed by sophomore Gavin Cullinan (Cummings, Ga.) in the butterfly. Junior Anton Lopez (Oakland, Calif.) secured the win with the final 50 yards in the freestyle to complete a time of 1:36.52. The Lyons registered a winning time of 3:10.71 in the 400-yard freestyle relay to cap the night. Cullinan, sophomore Brian Hixson (Scituate, Mass.), Lopez and Goho combined to win the race by a comfortable margin.
Lopez turned in a winning time of 21.40 in the 50-yard freestyle and placed third in the 100-yard backstroke for the Lyons, while first year Kevin Rice (Vienna, Va.) placed first in the 500-yard freestyle with a mark of 4:54.55 after finishing fourth in the 50-yard breaststroke. Hixson matched Rice's 12-point output with a trio of second-place showings in the 50, 100 and 200-yard freestyle races.
Sophomore Christopher Smith (Northbridge, Mass.) tallied a meet-high 22 points to lead the Engineers. Smith won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 53.83, before taking the last individual event of the night with a time of 1:58.35 in the 200-yard individual medley. Smith added a second-place effort in the 50-yard breaststroke. Senior Alex Masiero was a double-winner with wins on the one and three-meter diving boards with a scores of 229.50 and 206.70, respectively.
First year Sean Tesoro (Reading, Mass.) placed among the top three in three events, including a victory in the 50-yard butterfly with a time of 24.47 to give him 15 points for the evening. He also placed third in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events for the Engineers. Senior Jack Brazer (Bolton, Mass.) and sophomore Nikita Zuev (Wallingford, Conn.) each posted first and third place finishes for the visitors. Brazer won the 100-yard butterfly behind a time of 54.06 and was third in the 50-yard version of the stroke. Zuev touched first in the 200-yard freestyle, before placing third in the 500-yard freestyle.
WPI heads to Waterville, Maine to take on Colby College at 2:00 p.m. on January 20, while Wheaton returns to the pool on the same day when it hosts Trinity College (Conn.) on Senior Day at 2:00 p.m. in Balfour Natatorium.
