The Amherst men's swim team narrowly edged Tufts for a second place finish. .

Men's Swim Team Places Second at NESCAC Championships

February 25, 2007

Over February 23 to 25, the Amherst Men’s Swim Team competed at the NESCAC championships at Bowdoin College.  Led by strong performances by senior co-captains Ethan Treat (Newton, Massachusetts) and John Ancona (Lake Forest, Illinois), junior diver Connor Boyd (Northridge, California), and sophomore Christian Witzke (Jacksonville, Florida), the team narrowly beat out Tufts by a score of 1308 to 1306 for an exciting second place finish behind Williams College.

After opening the meet with consistent performances at Friday morning preliminaries, the relay team of first-year Tad Homchick (Mercer Island, Washington), senior Adam Kaplan (Rye, New York), junior Andrew Maslan (Mission Hills, Kansas), and Christian Witzke placed fourth with a Nationals provisional time of 1:24.55 in the 200 freestyle relay at Friday evening’s finals.  This start was followed by a sixth place finish by Ancona in the 50-yard breaststroke (26.97) and strong consolation finals performances by sophomore C. J. Holmes (Alma, Michigan) and senior Alek Vey (Glenside, Pennsylvania) in the 50-yard butterfly.  Christian Witzke then turned in his second Nationals provisional cut performance of the night with an impressive 4:37.59 second place finish in the 500 yard freestyle.  The 50-yard backstroke was the first event to have two Amherst swimmers qualify for finals, with sophomore Michael Waskom (Wilton, Connecticut) and first-year Darryl Weimer (Alexandria, Minnesota) finishing fifth and eighth, respectively.  The 200-yard individual medley proved to be an especially strong event for the Amherst team, with five athletes returning to compete Friday evening.  Ethan Treat placed third with a Nationals provisional time of 1:53.61, while Andrew Maslan touched closely behind with a 1:55.53 sixth place finish.  In the same event, junior Derek Prill (Paris, France) won the consolation final and and ninth-place points.  In the first individual championship race of his Amherst swimming career, first year Tad Homchick was a sixth place finisher in the competitive 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.35.  In a break from the swimming races, diver Connor Boyd placed second on the 1-meter board with a score of 431.00.  For the concluding event of the evening, the 400 medley relay of Waskom, Ancona, Treat, and Witzke finished third, with another Nationals provisional time of 3:28.08.

The Lord Jeffs began Saturday night finals with a sixth place finish in the 200 yard medley relay of Mike Waskom, John Ancona, C. J. Holmes, and Tad Homchick.  In the 1000 yard freestyle, Amherst was represented by first-year Hunter Mims (Fairfax Station, Virginia; 15th place) and junior David Ullian (Charleston, South Carolina; 24th place).  Senior Ethan Treat made the team’s first Nationals automatic qualifying time of the meet, with a time of 4:00.41 and a second place finish in the 400 individual medley, again just ahead of Andrew Maslan’s 4:09.12, fourth place finish.  Christian Witzke turned in another strong performance in the 200-yard freestyle, finishing third in the competitive event with a time of 1:42.47 and another provisional qualifying time.  The 100-yard breaststroke was another strong event for the Jeffs: senior captain Ancona finished second with a Nationals provisional cut (58.71), followed closely by Prill in seventh place (59.83).  In the 100-yard backstroke, Mike Waskom earned his first individual Nationals provisional cut with a time of 52.76 (5th place).  For the second night in a row, Amherst ended the session with a strong relay performance turned in by Treat, Maslan, Waskom, and Witzke in the 800 free relay, placing third with a Nationals provisional time of 6:56.96.

The final day of the meet began with Christian Witzke placing third in the 1650 freestyle, completing a string of strong freestyle finals performances with a Nationals provisional cut of 16:06.07.  Later in the evening, John Ancona completed his final individual race of his swimming career with a second place finish in the 200 breaststroke, ahead of teammate junior James Stanton (Mercer Island, Washington), who finished fifth.  Amherst was similarly well represented in the finals heat of the 200-butterfly by Ethan Treat and C. J. Holmes, who placed fifth and eighth respectively, with the former turning in another Nationals provisional time.  Connor Boyd continued his consistently impressive performance on the 3-meter boards, with a third place finish.

The Amherst men ended their championship meet with fifth place finish in the 400 freestyle relay.  The team of Homchick, Maslan, Waskom, and Witzke went 3:08.26, securing the team’s final score of 1308, placing ahead of Tufts University by a mere two point margin.  This exciting conclusion to the meet completes the centennial season of Amherst Swimming.

Ethan Treat, Connor Boyd, and Christian Witzke will represent the Lord Jeffs at NCAA Division III Nationals in Houston, Texas March 15-17.