Tufts wrapped up its regular season over the weekend at the Middlebury Invitational. Despite resting some of their top swimmers, the Jumbos — led by first-year Tommy Gillespie and sophomore Kingsley Bowen — earned 10 first-place finishes. While the team prepared with one eye on next month’s NESCAC Championships, coach Adam Hoyt highlighted the importance of the two-day event at Middlebury.
“The Invitational is [like] a championship meet for a portion of our team that isn’t attending the NESCAC Championships,” he said. “For our younger guys, it’s an opportunity to develop experience and confidence racing against college-level and NESCAC-level competition.”
One such swimmer was Gillespie, who won the 1,650-yard freestyle on Friday with a time of 16:34.31. After surging off the blocks and into the lead with an opening split of 27.20 seconds, the Chevy Chase, Md. native settled into a steady pace over the remaining 32 lengths, with no split dipping below 29.49 seconds or exceeding 30.93 seconds. Gillespie added a second individual victory in Saturday’s 500 yard freestyle, touching the wall in 4:45.14, less than a second ahead of Middlebury junior Connor McCormick.
“When [McCormick] was going out at that really fast pace, I thought, ‘stay with him and pass him in the end,’ and I was able to do that. At the end, I just had a little more left than him,” Gillespie said. “It’s a huge motivation tool to [get a] personal best in your last race.”
While the meet marked the conclusion of Gillespie’s season, it served as a tune-up for Bowen, last year's NESCAC Rookie of the Year and an All-American honoreewho is set to swim in the NESCAC Championships. Bowen earned both of his first-place finishes on Saturday,winning the 100-yard butterfly in 52.05 seconds and the 200-yard backstroke in 1:52.35. First-year Trevor Serman added an individual first-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly (1:55.06), while fellow first-year Roger Gu registered the first of his three victories by clocking a time of 1:45.16 in the 200-yard freestyle.
Tufts also found success in relay events, winning the 400 freestyle relay (3:11.34), 800 freestyle relay (7:08.15) and 400 medley relay (3:35.10). In the 400 free, the Jumbos led Middlebury by just .01 seconds after the first 300 yards, but Gu swam his anchor leg 2.66 seconds faster than Middlebury’s McCormick, powering Tufts to a comfortable margin of victory.
Gu also had his team’s top time (1:44.61) in the 800 freestyle relay, as he combined with Bowen, sophomore Brandon Jinn and Gillespie to beat Middlebury by more than three seconds. In the 400 medley relay, the Tufts team of sophomore Chris Simotas, senior Michael DeCortin, sophomore Brian Honicky and first-year Timothy Gronet captured first place with a time of 3:35.10.
The relay victory capped an impressive meet for Gronet, who also took home first place in the 100-yard freestyle (47.43), second place in the 100-yard backstroke (53.14) and third place in the 50-yard freestyle (21.77). His performance earned him one of the final roster spots on the team of 24 swimmers that the Jumbos will bring to the NESCAC Championships, which will be held Feb. 17-19 at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn.
“I think it helps me visualize what I’m capable of and also helps me be confident that I can get times like I did in the past weekend and then just try to have that same mentality,” Gronet said.
Gronet also explained that he was not expecting to make it to the NESCAC Championships in his first-year campaign.
“I thought [Middlebury] was going to be my final meet, and I got a call from [the] coach, and [he] was like, ‘Oh congratulations, you made the swing spot for NESCACs,’” he said.
With his team now turning its attention to the NESCAC Championships, Hoyt stressed that the preparation would not deviate much from what it has been throughout the season.
“Most of our NESCAC team members did not rest for the competition this weekend,” Hoyt said. “They’re looking forward to much-deserved rest, fine tuning [and] just sharpening their race strategy in practice over the next two and a half weeks, so hopefully they’ll start feeling stronger and more well-rested and ready to race against the best in our conference.”
Tufts caps off regular season at Middlebury Invitational
