McNamara’s School Record Highlights Day Two Of NESCAC Championship – Middlebury College

Luke McNamara of the Middlebury men’s swimming and diving team broke a 28-year-old school record to highlight the second day of competition at the NESCAC Championships hosted by the Panthers. Leading the way is #8 Williams with 788.5 points, while fifth-ranked Tufts is second (597.5 points) and #18 Amherst sits third (498.5 points). Middlebury is sixth with 408.5 points.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• McNamara touched the wall with a time of 1:50.88 in the 200 individual medley (IM) preliminary swim. That clocking eclipsed the previous record of 1:51.20 set in 1997. During the evening championship final, McNamara lowered his morning effort by over half a second and posted a school-record swim of 1:50.31 to finish in fourth place.
• One heat before in the consolation final of the 200 IM, the Panthers tallied a trio of top-16 efforts. John Masiello swam to 12th place (1:52.17), while Samuel Hughes was 15th (1:53.36) and Stefanos Salas was one spot back (1:55.05).
• The night’s fastest event had Matthew Hensel post a 14th-place swim in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.13.
• A pair of divers scored for Middlebury in the one-meter event. Owen White led the way, finishing seventh with a score of 360.90 points. Henry Wang rounded out the scorers for the Panthers, finishing 11th with a score of 279.55 points. 
• Jack Undercofler earned a seventh-place finish in the 50 backstroke, touching the wall in 23.34. 
• During the 50 butterfly, Andrew Dou captured 10th overall with a clocking of 22.74.
• Paul Shen finished 13th in the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 25.76, while James Thomas was 16th with a clocking of 26.22. 
• The 200 free relay quartet of Jason Chiappinelli, Prin Chantarangkul, Hensel and Hughes raced to a ninth-place showing, stopping the clock in 1:23.52.
• In the final event of the evening, the 400 medley squad of Undercofler, Shen, Dou and Masiello finished seventh with a time of 3:20.17. That effort was just .02 seconds above the school record. 

NOTES

• During Friday’s action, Bates’ 200 free relay team set a pool record, while Williams’ Ryan Nunez (500 free) set meet and pool records.
• Other notable swims were posted by Jack Tran (Bowdoin) in the 50 fly, Fyn Nadel (Amherst) in the 50 breaststroke, Eric Lundgren (Tufts) in the 50 back, Oliver Schalet in the 200 IM and Maximilian Cory (Bates) in the 50 free, who each established pool records in their respective events.

Middlebury returns to competition on Saturday for the third day of the NESCAC Championships. Preliminaries begin at 10:00 a.m. followed by diving at 2:00 p.m. and the finals at 5:45 p.m.