Winget, Rohrer earn 23rd for Jumbos at NCAA championships

Though it may have seemed a tall order a week ago, the men’s swimming and diving team has once again claimed its spot as a national top-25 team at the 2015 NCAA Championships. Sophomore diver Matt Rohrer and junior tri-captain Michael Winget earned 41 team points for the Jumbos to tie for 23rd place at the meet as they brought home three All-American awards and one honorable mention nod.

Last year the team took 19th place at the NCAA Championships with 50 points, 35 of which came from prolific diver Johann Schmidt (LA ’14), 14 from Rohrer and one from Winget. Current sophomore William Metcalfe also competed at the championships, though he did not score any points.

With only Winget and Rohrer qualifying for this year’s championships, it seemed as if matching or coming close to last year’s finish might be a stretch for coach Adam Hoyt’s squad this year. The two Jumbos pulled through, however, with personal best performances and kept the team in the top 25 nationally, especially with a Saturday that saw the pair score 27 total points and rally from 31st place to 23rd on the final day of competition.

“I personally felt like if I swam my best times I would be in contention to be a finalist in my events,” Winget said. “In terms of accomplishing things I would say I did everything I wanted to do because I got best times and scored points for the team, and that’s all I wanted to do going into the meet.”

Rohrer claimed the first points for the Jumbos on Thursday evening when he finished eighth in the one-meter finals with a 452.25 score. The top eight performance earned him his first All-American award — following a pair of honorable mention All-American awards for his 10th place finished off both boards last year — as well as 11 team points for the Jumbos. 

“I kept myself really occupied between dives by not watching the rest of the meet and not looking up at the scores or who was placed where after each round, and I think that helped me to not get nervous on the board,” Rohrer said. “The experience from last year definitely helped me to relax, but I still had a few dives where my legs were shaking going into it.”

Winget struck next for Tufts on Friday. In the 100-meter backstroke finals, he improved his previous personal best of 49.51 seconds, which as the previous school record had been seeded as the 10th fastest time nationally going into the meet, to 49.47 seconds. At the championships, though, his 49.47 only got him 14th place, earning three team points and an honorable mention All-American award, the third of his career.

He bounced back the next day, however, and dropped more than half a second in the 200 backstroke — where he had been seeded 13th nationally going in — to take fifth in 1:47.70. The effort set yet another school record, earned Winget his first outright All-American award and brought 14 points to Tufts.

“It’s all about racing once you’re in finals, and I hit the last turn and knew I was close to a few guys, so I just wanted to race them the last 50, and I think that just gave me a little extra adrenaline and that allowed me to have a great last 50 and get a best time and place well in finals,” Winget said.

To cap off a stellar Saturday, Rohrer drastically improved his diving score from the morning’s three-meter preliminaries to take sixth in the finals with a 512.85 score. The finish brought All-American honors to the sophomore again and 13 points to bring the Jumbos’ total to 41.

“It's hard to go through an entire meet and be really happy with every single dive,” Rohrer said. “There's always something you could have done better. I'm just proud of the 11 dives I put together in prelims that put me into the A final, and once I got to finals I was really just happy to be there. There were definitely some dives I wish could have gone better, but I don't think they would have changed the final results of the meet, so I'm not really upset about it.”

As the only New England diver to make the finals in the one-meter and the top finisher of the two New England divers in the three-meter, Rohrer solidified his preeminence not only in the NESCAC but also in the entire region.

“It's funny that people mention the whole New England divers thing so much with NCAAs because we don't see it that way as divers,” Rohrer said. “We don't care where people are from, because no matter what they are competition ... How I compare to them doesn't really affect my confidence going into next season, but how well I performed according to my own standards makes me really excited for what I'll be able to do next year. I put down some of the best dives of my career at NCAAs, and I'm just excited to better those next year.”

Winget also competed in the 100-meter butterfly on Thursday, and though his 49.61 time in the preliminaries was more than a three-second improvement over his previous personal best, it was not good enough to move him on to the finals, and he finished 29th. 

Winget told the Daily before the championships that he would be focusing on the minutia of his racing in the little time he had left to prepare, meaning working on turns, breakouts and pacing, among other things. He believes that his work in this area definitely had an impact in helping him shave time.

“After NESCACs, I saw the areas I need to improve on, and I think Coach Hoyt did a good job adjusting training to target these areas of my racing. The extra focus definitely helped me swim the way I did,” Winget said.

According to Winget, pulling out a 23rd place finish shouldn’t be surprising for this Jumbo program, which has consistently proven itself to be among the best programs in the nation with top-25 finishes at NCAAs five out of the last six years.

“As a team, I believe we are a top 25 team in the country, so finishing 23rd is an accurate representation of the team,” Winget said. “Every year [that Tufts athletes compete in], the meet is up in the air, but I think it’s never out of the realm of possibility for us to finish in the top 25.”

The 2014-2015 season is now over for the team, but with a strong core of returning athletes, including both Winget and Rohrer, next season seems likely to be another strong year for the Jumbos.