NORTON, Mass. — The Wheaton College (Mass.) men's swimming & diving team won both relays, but fell to visiting No. 13 Connecticut College, 197-95, this afternoon at Balfour Natatorium on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass.
The Lyons slip to 4-6 on the season, while the Camels, who are ranked in the most recent College SwimmingCoaches Association of America national poll, improves to 8-1.
Prior to the meet, Wheaton celebrated its senior class consisting of Luis Bonetti (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), Gavin Cullinan (Cumming, Ga.), Brian Hixson (Scituate, Mass.), Will Larson (Iowa City, Iowa), Alex Minickiello (Swanzey, N.H.) and Andrew Tran (Milton, Mass.).
The Lyons opened the meet with a win in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:33.99. First year Marcus Tran (Milton, Mass.) swam the opening backstroke, before his older brother, Andrew Tran swam the breaststroke. Cullinan followed in the butterfly, before Hixson closed out the race with the freestyle anchor. Wheaton ended the meet with a victory in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Marcus Tran, Larson, Cullinan and Hixson combined for a winning mark of 1:24.34.
Marcus Tran led the Lyons with 18 points after winning both the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard butterfly. He topped the field in the 100-yard backstroke with a mark of 53.11, before winning the 100-yard butterfly with a 52.06 clip. Hixson also posted a victory for Wheaton with a clip of 46.82 to outswim the field in the 100-yard freestyle. Larson totaled seven points for the home squad with a second-place showing in the 50-yard freestyle on a time of 21.55 and was third in the 100-yard freestyle behind a time of 48.56. Cullinan placed second in the 200-yard backstroke with a mark of 1:58.80 and touched the wall with a mark of 1:46.56 to finish fourth in the 200-yard freestyle. Andrew Tran also posted a second-place effort with a time of 1:01.19 in the 100-yard breaststroke and was also fifth in the 100-yard butterfly with a clip of 53.92.
Connecticut College boasted three competitors with a pair of first place finishes in the meet. Junior Cam Biziak (Willoughby, Ohio) won on both diving boards with a score of 292.35 on the three-meter board and turned in a top score of 466.05 on the one-meter board. First year Julian Carlson (Brookline, Mass.) finished first in both breaststroke events, winning the 100-yard event with a mark of 59.26 and the 200-yard race with a clip of 2:07.93. First year Campbell Noel (Austin, Texas) won the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle with times of 1:45.15 and 4:45.39, respectively. Junior Evan Lyons (Longmeadow, Mass.) scored in three different events to tally 17 points for the Camels. He won the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:47.29 and finished second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a mark of 2:17.61. Lyons was the runner-up in the 200-yard individual medley with a clip of 1:59.83.
Sophomore Stepan Ignatiey (Swampscott, Mass.), first year Dawson Rice (Wilbraham, Mass.) and sophomore Carrick Shea (Grafton, Mass.) each scored 13 points with first and second-place efforts for Connecticut College. Ignatiey won the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:57.47 and was second in the 100-yard butterfly with a mark of 52.87. Rice did the same thing in the backstroke, winning the 200-yard race with a time of 1:57.08 and was second in the 100-yard swim with a clip of 53.70. Shea touched first in the 50-yard freestyle and sprinted to a time of 21.01, while placing second in the 100-yard freestyle with a mark of 46.96. Junior Ryan Karaca (Schenectady, N.Y.) finished first in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:56.87 as part of a 12-point showing that saw him also place third in the 100-yard breaststroke with a clip of 1:02.22.
The Lyons return to compete at the four-day New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference Championship on February 19 hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. at 6:00 p.m.
