The Colby Echo

Issue date: 3/2/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Ben Herbst Mike Finnerty '08

With 898 points, Colby men's swimming outscored Wesleyan University, Bowdoin College, Hamilton College, Trinity College and Bates College en route to a sixth place finish at the New England Small College Athletic Conference championships last Friday through Sunday. The competition, hosted by Bowdoin, was won by five-time reigning champion Williams College by a considerable 700 point margin.

Although the Mules slipped from the fifth place spot attained last season, there were a number of strong performances. Captain Mitch Bartkiewicz '07 said, "I feel like the team was quite pleased with our sixth place finish this year. We finished fifth last year with only ten teams present, so to finish sixth out of eleven this year amidst a faster and deeper league overall is quite an accomplishment."

Colby started off on Friday night with a bang, with Jabez Dewey '07 winning the NESCAC title in the 50-yard backstroke with a time of 24.33. A number of Colby school records were broken on Friday, with Evan Mullin '08 placing seventh in the 500 freestyle after finishing fifth and breaking his own Colby record in the preliminaries with a time of 4:41.03. Additionally, the 400 medley relay of Dewey, Andrew Peterson '08, Bartkiewicz and Mullin took sixth place with an NCAA 'B' cut qualifying time while breaking Colby's record in that event. The 200 freestyle relay of Mullin, Ben Gross '10, Sam Wampler '09 and Dewey also broke the Colby record with their seventh place finish. Wampler also finished eighth in the 50 freestyle, while Ian Cross '07 was ninth in the 1-meter diving competition.

On the second day of competition, Colby had two swimmers finish in the top eight in the 100 backstroke. Dewey finished in second place with a time of 51.95, while Mike Finnerty '08 took eighth place with a time of 54.53. The Mules set another school record in the 200 medley relay of Dewey, Peterson, Captain Ryan Adams '07 and Wampler, for a fourth place finish in that event. Mullin took seventh place in the 2000 freestyle with a time of 1:43.81.

In the final day of competition, Dewey again performed well in the backstroke, this time taking third place in the 200 backstroke with an NCAA 'B' cut qualifying time of 1:53.73. Finnerty again was in the championship heat with Dewey, where he took a seventh place finish. Senior Patrick Dean finished fourth in the 200 breaststroke, while Mullin took a fifth place finish in the 100 freestyle. Wampler was seventh in that event. Cross was solid on the boards again, with a sixth place finish in the 3-meter diving competition. Colby's 400 free relay of Mullin, Gross, Wampler and Dewey finished in seventh place.

Continued...

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