"While we may have finished second to Williams, there is still a lot to celebrate," said senior co-captain Mike Pohorylo. "We broke a combined 18 pool, NESCAC, school and meet records, as well as won nine out of 22 events."
Several Amherst men scored among the top individual scorers for the meet: Ethan Treat '07 in second, Pohorylo in fourth, Rick Estacio '06 and Bryan Woo '06 both tied for fifth and John Ancona '07 took seventh. Steve Shapiro '04 and co-captain Dan Morash '04 also made the top 25.
The meet began on Friday with the 200-yard freestyle relay. Bryan Woo '06, co-captain Dan Morash '04, Rick Estacio '06 and Chuck Clinton '05 took fourth place with a national B-qualifying time of 1:51.93. Amherst's B-relay team of Adam Kaplan '07, Ancona, Nick Federico '05 and Grant Mandsager '04 took 15th.
In the 50-yard butterfly, Woo broke the pool record with his first-place finish time of 3:08.97, while Federico finished seventh. In the 500-yard freestyle, Shapiro finished fifth with a national B-qualifying time, while sophomores Adam Lewkowitz and Dan Savage finished eighth and 16th, respectively.
Estacio broke the 50-yard backstroke pool record, only a 10th of a second off the NESCAC and meet records and almost a full second ahead of Colby College's second-placing backstroker, with a time of 23.22.
The 200-yard individual medley was one of the best races of the meet. Treat beat Williams' Will Cunningham, two-time Swimmer of the Meet award winner, by a slim margin with a time of 1:52.04. Treat's first-place finish earned a national A-cut and set a new NESCAC Championship record.
In the last individual event of the night, Clinton took third with his national B-cut time in the 50-yard freestyle. Then in the 400-yard medley relay, Estacio, Pohorylo, Woo and Clinton finished first, over three seconds ahead of the second-place team from Williams. The Amherst relay earned a national A-cut time, broke the 15-year-old pool record set by UC-San Diego in 1989 and tied the meet record set by the same quartet at last year's NESCAC competition finishing the race in 3:23.75.
Saturday's events began with a solid performance by Estacio, Pohorylo, Woo and Clinton in the 200-yard medley relay. Finishing only three-tenths of a second ahead of Williams, their time earned them a national A-cut and beat the 1989 pool record along with Amherst's 2003 meet and NESCAC records. Amherst's B-team of Morash, Ancona, Federico and Kaplan took 14th.
In the 400-yard individual medley, Treat once again dominated, beating all competition by at least two seconds and earning himself a national A-cut as well as pool, meet and NESCAC records with a time of 3:58.99. Tommy Gonnella '06 and Hagerty took eighth and ninth, respectively.
"Ethan [Treat's] race was amazing," said Gonnella. "Beating four minutes is something probably only a few people in the country can do."
After taking first in the morning preliminary race with a meet record-breaking swim, Woo finished in second place with a national B-qualifying time in the 100-yard butterfly. Federico finished eighth, while Alek Vey '07 took ninth and Ghazal took 15th. Clinton then finished ninth in the 200-yard freestyle.
Amherst went one-two in the 100-yard breaststroke as both Pohorylo and Ancona earned national B-qualifying times. Pohorylo, who touched in 1.5 seconds ahead of his competition, also earned pool, meet and NESCAC records with a time of 56.62. Morash took seventh and Stanton came in 13th. In the 100-yard backstroke, Estacio took second with a national B-qualifying time.
The second day of competition closed with the 800-yard freestyle relay. The team of Shapiro, Pohorylo, Morash and Treat took fifth, while Savage, Lewkowitz, Hagerty and Mandsager took 15th.
The final day began with the 1650-yard freestyle. Shapiro ended his NESCAC career with a strong fourth-place finish and national B-cut time. Lewkowitz finished with a close sixth place and Gach took 15th.
In the final backstroke event, Estacio took a close second place, a mere five-hundredths of a second from the top time and a full three seconds ahead of Williams' third-place swimmer. His race earned him a national A-cut time. Hagerty also took fifth place.
Pohorylo dominated the final breaststroke race, beating all other competition by at least five seconds, earning a national A-cut and breaking pool, meet and NESCAC records, finishing the event in 1:52.41. Ancona earned himself his second B-qualifying time of the meet with his third-place finish.
"It is probably one of the best times in the country. He is amazing," said Gonnella about Pohorylo's performance.
Treat registered his third national A-cut time of the weekend for an individual event in the 200-yard butterfly with a second-place finish time of 1:52.41. Federico, Vey and Ghazal took 10th, 12th and 13th, respectively.
The weekend ended with the 400-yard freestyle relay. Woo, Pohorylo, Estacio and Clinton registered a fourth-place finish and a national B-cut. The B-relay of Hagerty, Morash, Stanton and Mandsager took 16th.
The first-years really boosted the team in the meet as they have all season long."We had high expectations for the freshmen to swim fast this weekend and they did just that," said Federico.
Ancona, in particular came out of his shell this weekend and dominated the competition. "We were not sure what to expect from John [Ancona]. He became a championship-caliber athlete and one of the best swimmers in Div. III this past weekend," said Pohorylo.
Several members of the team, Pohorylo, Clinton, Estacio, Woo, Treat and Ancona continue to train for nationals, which will be held March 19-21 in St. Louis, Mo.