The Tufts men’s swimming and diving team spent Presidents Day weekend at Colby College competing in the 2022 NESCAC Championship Meet. As a team, Tufts finished as runner-up at the meet with a score of 1,577.5 points — well behind meet winners Williams College at 2,086 points but well ahead of third-place finishers Amherst College at 1,069 points.
On Saturday, first-year Ethan Schreier and junior Joshua Balbi made the NCAA B-cut in the 100-yard butterfly with times of 48.28 seconds and 49.09 seconds, respectively. Schreier’s time marked a new record in the 100-yard butterfly for the Tufts swimming and diving program and was the last of three school records that he broke over the course of the weekend.
When asked about what helped him succeed in this meet, Schreier said, “I had some good food the night before with everyone, and then [everybody on the team] was getting together, getting everybody hyped up. We were all super excited going into the meet. The coaches, I think, also did a great job preparing us over the last two to three months. Obviously, throughout the season, we’ve been doing a lot, but especially over our training trip in Florida, I feel like we’ve really stepped it up.”
This response echoed the sentiments of Tufts swimmers who swam at the Boston Open and similarly were competing for the first time since the team’s training trip in Florida.
Senior Victor Vollbrechthausen was another Tufts swimmer to set a new school record on Saturday. In this case, it was in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:39.03.
On Friday, first-year Emmett Adams earned the second-best time in school history in the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 25.44 seconds. In the 50-yard backstroke, senior Nate Tingen also earned the second-best time in school history, with a time of 22.40 seconds. Tingen and Adams swam these strokes again as they joined Schreier and junior Peter LaBarge in a school record-setting 400 medley relay performance at 3:16.08.
On Thursday, day one of the meet, first-year Eric Lundgren, Schreier, Tingen and Vollbrechthausen combined for a new school record in the 800-yard freestyle relay, with a time of 6:38.76. Schreier’s time of 1:39.17 set the school record for the fastest leadoff split in the event.
These record-setting swimmers are among those who made the NCAA B-cuts and will have a little under three weeks to prepare for the NCAA Championships. This is enough time even for Tufts swimmers who set personal records at this meet to embark upon setting new personal records at NCAA Championships.
“The focus right now: we’re just gonna get back to work for the next couple weeks and rest a little bit, a couple days going into the championship,” Schreier said. “This is going to be a great experience … Everybody who’s going just wants to have a good experience with the team and to swim fast.”
The NCAA Championships will take place in Indianapolis, Ind. from March 16 to March 19.
