"The men placed much higher overall than they have in recent years," Coach Nick Nichols said. "Some of them had better races at NESCACs, but there were definitely a few incredible swims last weekend. [Mike] Pohorylo's ['04] breaststroke race was especially shocking."
Ben Hopkins '03 started things off with sixth place in the finals of the 1m diving on day one with a score of 449.10. The men's 400 medley relay team of Rob Winograd '02, Pohorylo, Chris Morton '02 and Pat Kennedy '03 also capitulated on day one, capturing eighth with a time of 3:29.92.
On day two, Pohorylo highlighted the men's swims with an incredible fourth place finish in the 100 breaststroke in 57.03, breaking the college record which he had set three weekends earlier at NESCACs. Following him in the consolation heat of the same event was Kennedy in 58.31, who placed thirteenth overall. The men's 800 freestyle relay team of Steve Shapiro '04, Pohorylo, Morton and Winograd also captured thirteenth in a time of 6:59.12.
Then Pohorylo took third in the 200 breaststroke on Saturday, the last day of the meet, in a school and NESCAC record-breaking time of 2:03.04. Previous record-holder Pat Lahey '00 actually attended the meet to watch the men swim and Pohorylo noted that he was "there to see me break his own record," he said. Pohorylo also set the NESCAC record with his outstanding 200 last Saturday.
"The cool thing about the 200 was that the time took down a Williams swimmer from the NESCAC record board and put up Amherst," Kennedy said.
The race was even more exciting for Pohorylo since he wasn't able to swim the race at NESCACs three weeks earlier-he had come down with a 24-hour flu Saturday night and had to scratch all events he planned to swim Sunday. In the 3m diving on the same day as Pohorylo's swim, Hopkins took seventh with a score of 417.40.
In addition to their outstanding performances in the final and consolation final heats mentioned above, the men also pulled out some impressive races during morning preliminaries. On day one in the 500 freestyle, Shapiro took 26th and Winograd took 37th. Pohorylo took 30th in the 200 IM and Kennedy captured 21st in the 50 free. On day two, the men's 200 medley relay team of Winograd, Pohorylo, Morton and Kennedy took 20th overall and Morton took 24th in the 100 butterfly. In the 200 freestyle, Winograd took 31st-almost missing his race as he rushed to the block with no cap-while Shapiro took 18th in the 1,650 freestyle.
On day three, in the 200 breaststroke, Kennedy took 24th, followed by Morton and Winograd in the 200 fly with places of 18th and 28th, respectively. The men's 400 freestyle relay team of Winograd, Morton, Pohorylo and Kennedy placed 22nd to wrap up the meet Saturday.
"I'm really looking forward to being dry for the next few months," said Pohorylo. "Especially after so much swimming this past weekend, we were in the water so much in the mornings [for trials] and evenings [for finals] that I even felt like I was wet between sessions."
Referring to the wooden plaques each swimmer received, Nichols added, "They wanted to come away with wood and they got it."