WATERVILLE, Maine — Senior Andrew Tran (Milton, Mass.) broke the school record for the 100-yard individual medley and tallied 29 points with a pair of top-six finishes to help lead the men's swimming & diving team to a fifth-place showing today at the Maine Collegiate Swimming & Diving Winter Invitational at the Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center Aquatics Center in Waterville, Maine.
The Lyons racked up 424 points for the two-day, three-session meet. The top three schools in the meet were separated by just 98 points with host Colby College winning the meet with a score of 875.5 points. No. 21 Bates College produced 787.5 points to edge out Division I University of Maine's total of 777.5 points. Bowdoin College was fourth with 563.5 points.
Tran shattered the more than seven year-old school record in the 100 IM, set by Jonathan Dunnett in 2018, by 0.63 seconds with a new standard of 52.53. Tran finished third in the event. He also placed sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke with a season-best time of 59.29 to give him 29 points for Wheaton.
Senior Brian Hixson (Scituate, Mass.) tallied a team-high 34 points for the day with three top-11 finishes, including a pair of fifth-place efforts. He placed fifth in the 100-yard IM with a personal-record time of 53.12 and was fifth with a season-best mark of 46.03 in the 100-yard freestyle. In addition, Hixson finished 11th in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 52.24. Senior Gavin Cullinan (Cumming, Ga.) scored 32 points with a pair of third-place swims for the Lyons. He clocked in with a season-best time of 1:41.97 in the 200-yard freestyle and registered a season-best clip of 51.27 in the 100-yard backstroke.
Wheaton placed third in both of the relays for the day. The Lyons posted a season-best mark of 1:31.90 in the 200-yard medley relay behind first year Marcus Tran (Milton, Mass.) in the opening backstroke, followed by the older Andrew Tran in the breaststroke. Cullinan swam the butterfly, before giving way to Hixson in the freestyle anchor leg. Cullinan and Marcus Tran swam the first two legs of the 400-yard freestyle relay, followed by senior Will Larson (Iowa City, Iowa) and Hixson to combine on a time of 3:04.73.
Marcus Tran collected 27 points with a pair of top-seven efforts for the Lyons. He placed fourth in the 100-yard backstroke with a season-best time of 51.64. Tran turned in a time of 46.31 to finish seventh in the 100-yard freestyle. Junior Kevin Rice (Vienna, Va.) also scored more than 20 points with scoring efforts in three events. He touched the wall with a season-best time of 2:13.89 in the 200-yard breaststroke to finish sixth. Rice was 10th in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 16:59.97 and added a point with a 16th-place showing in the 200-yard freestyle on a season-best time of 1:47.28.
Larson posted a pair of ninth-place showings for Wheaton. He swam to a personal-record time of 47.32 in the 100-yard freestyle and his season-best mark of 54.00 came in the 100-yard backstroke. Junior Jadyn Arnold (Oakland, Maine) also scored in a pair of events for the Lyons. He finished 10th in the 200-yard backstroke with a season-best mark of 2:01.15 and was 12th in the 100-yard backstroke with a season-best clip of 54.36.
First year Abel Haller (Needham, Mass.) recorded a pair of personal-record times to score 10 points for Wheaton. He registered a mark of 1:00.23 to place 11th in the 100-yard breaststroke, and his time of 55.02 was good for 13th in the 100-yard individual medley. Junior Andrew Gust (North Andover, Mass.) finished 16th in the 200-yard breaststroke with a personal-record clip of 2:24.19.
The Lyons return to the pool on Friday, January 9 at 10:30 a.m. when they travel to South Hadley, Mass. to take on Clark University at host Mount Holyoke College.
