Men's Swimming & Diving Finishes Sixth Overall in NEWMAC

The Wheaton College men's swimming and diving team came in sixth place overall at the conclusion of the 2013 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted by MIT, at the Barrie Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center on Sunday evening. 

MIT claimed its fifth-straight conference championship title with 1,178 points over the three-day event. Springfield College finished second overall with 658.50 points, Coast Guard ranked third overall with 542 points, WPI was fourth with 477 points and Babson College had 397.50 points for fifth place overall. Wheaton posted 294 points to finish ahead of Clark University (181 points). 

Wheaton's 400-yard freestyle relay "A" team closed out the NEWMAC Championships in style as freshman Daniel Spencer (North Yarmouth, Maine/Greely), sophomore Nick Fredette (Stoneham, Mass./Stoneham), senior Sam Neill (Ludlow, Mass./Belchertown) and junior Emerson Jenkins (Kansas City, Mo./Pembroke Hill School)set a new school record with a time of 3:09.50. The Lyons quartet eclipsed the previous mark of 3:10.28 set by Matt Jordan '08, T.J. Sponzo '09, Chris Romilly '10 and Barrett Roberts '07 on February 26, 2006. 

Sophomore Dominic Ziolek (Londonderry, N.H./Londonderry) opened up day three of the conference championships with a 12th place performance in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 17:22.03. Freshman Mike Gibson (Northwood, N.H./Coe-Brown Northwood Academy)touched in 19:40.68 for 19th place overall. 

In the 200-yard backstroke, sophomore Richard Jenkins (Bow, N.H./Bow) led a quartet of Wheaton swimmers with a 13th place finish overall in 2:00.75. R. Jenkins came up just shy of eclipsing his season-best time of 2:00.73. Junior Sam Jackson (Darien, Conn./Darien) clocked in at 2:02.96 for 18th place overall. Freshman Jeremy Zak (Clifton, N.J./Montclair Kimberly Academy) was 21st overall in 2:04.17 and junior Kyle Wilson (Cumberland, Maine/Greely) swam a time of 2:04.31 for 22nd place overall. 

E. Jenkins placed 12th overall in the 100-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 47.22-seconds. E. Jenkins previous season-best mark entering this weekend's NEWMAC Championships was 47.93-seconds. Spencer claimed 19th place overall in 48.50-seconds while Neill touched in 49.06-seconds for 24th place overall. 

Fredette tapped the wall in 2:12.75 for a ninth place showing and a new season-best time in the 200-yard breaststroke. Classmate Corey Hedges (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) placed 14th overall in 2:14.77, Ziolek was 16th overall in 2:22.02 and junior Alex Garneau(Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) ranked 22nd overall in 2:27.22. 

Freshman Christian Tinory (Attleboro, Mass./Bishop Feehan) posted a season-best time in the 200-yard butterfly with a mark of 2:06.77 for 18th place overall. Tinory narrowly surpassed his previous time of 2:06.79 in the event. Junior Matt Sexton (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack)finished 21st overall with a time of 2:13.35. 

Wheaton's 400-yard freestyle relay "B" team of Jackson, Hedges, R. Jenkins and senior Griffin Hanley (Andover, Mass./North Andover)swam a time of 3:13.63 for a 12th place finish overall. 

Sophomore Ben Oliveri (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) finished tenth overall in the three-meter diving event with 203.85 points. 

Wheaton student-athletes with national qualifying marks/times will compete at the NCAA Division III Championships in Shenandoah, Texas on March 20 to 23.