CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Wheaton College (Mass.) men's swimming & diving team broke the school record for the 200-yard medley relay this evening on day three of the New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championship hosted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center Pool in Cambridge, Mass.
The Lyons' tally of 419 points has them firmly in fifth place, sitting behind Babson College's total of 506. Host MIT holds first place with 1066.5 points.
Wheaton turned in a time of 1:30.25 to place third in the 200-yard medley relay and shatter the former program record by more than a second and a half. First year Marcus Tran (Milton, Mass.) opened the race in the backstroke, before yielding to senior Andrew Tran's (Milton, Mass.) breaststroke. Senior Gavin Cullinan (Cumming, Ga.) followed with the butterfly, before classmate Brian Hixson (Scituate, Mass.) closed out the new school standard in the freestyle anchor. The quarter supplanted the former mark set of 1:31.56 by Jacob Cost '19, Samuel Zarfos '17, Jonathan Dunnett '18 and Frederick Garneau '17 on February 18, 2017.
The Blue and White's second unit placed 14th in the race with a time of 1:33.79 behind juniors Jadyn Arnold (Oakland, Maine), Kevin Rice (Vienna, Va.), first year Addy Farag (Alexandria, Egypt) and senior Will Larson (Iowa City, Iowa).
The Lyons piled on the points with four swimmers scoring in the top 16 places in the 100-yard backstroke. Cullinan finished sixth with a personal-record time of 50.03 with Marcus Tran right behind him at 50.07 with a personal-best mark of his own to place seventh. Larson finished 13th with a time of 52.16 and Arnold was 16th with a time of 52.96.
Cullinan scored in his third event of the night for Wheaton, placing eighth in the 200-yard freestyle behind a time of 1:41.92. Hixson finished ahead of his classmate with a personal-record mark of 1:41.08 to place sixth in the race.
Rice led four scorers in the 400-yard individual medley for the Lyons. He placed ninth with a time of 4:13.79, before junior Andrew Gust (North Andover, Mass.) finished 13th with a time of 4:17.97. First year Nate Contreras (Coalville, Utah) clocked in with a personal-best mark of 4:23.41 to place 17th and senior Alex Minickiello (Swanzey, N.H.) was 18th with a time of 4:30.41.
Andrew Tran scored in the 100-yard breaststroke with a personal-best clip of 56.82 to finish 11th. Wheaton first year Abel Haller (Needham, Mass.) followed his lead with a personal-record time of his own at 58.09 to place 16th. Sophomore Koby Wulfmeyer (New Paltz, N.Y.) finished 19th with a time of 58.39.
The Lyons return to the pool tomorrow for the final day of finals in Cambridge, Mass.
