Division III Weekly Recap: Williams and MIT Split

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Four top-ten teams competed at the Zesiger Aquatic Center Friday night. Number four Williams took on number nine MIT on the women’s side, while the roles were reversed as number four MIT defeated number seven Williams for the men. While the team scores did not end up being close on either side, many national top 10 swims were posted and some tough swims prevailed. This is typically the case with teams like Williams and MIT, as both are well on their way to successful NCAA runs.

Meet of the Week: Williams and MIT

Megan Pierce, Williams

The Eph women started off the meet taking first and second in the first four events. The team of Olivia Jackson, Caroline White, Emma Waddell and Lauren Jones combined to win the 400 medley relay in 3:51.78 to bump them into the national top-10. Their tenth-ranked swim stands alone on the list as a dual meet; all other relays were performed at invitationals. White could be the leg Williams needs to earn top honors in this event in March after the Ephs took second in Greensboro last season.

Teammate Megan Pierce had a standout day for the Ephs taking three individual events including the 1,650 free, 500 free and 400 IM. If there’s any female in Division III NCAA competition that could pull off this triple, it is definitely Pierce over anybody else right now. Pierce typically opts for the 200 fly at NCAAs over the 500, but that does not ease up her event load by that much anyway. Teammate Madeline Wessell did not give her an easy victory in the 500 either, as she posted a 5:08.00 to Pierce’s 5:07.85. Wessell was also victorious in the 50 free (24.57). There are many tough triples in a college dual meet lineup but none as impressive as the effort put in by Pierce Friday night. Such a performance is incredibly rare.

Waddell and Jones tied for the victory in the 200 free at 1:53.36. The pair also took first and second in the 100 freestyle, while Jackson took care of the 100 (57.69) and 200 (2:03.35) backstroke. White did the same in the breaststrokes, posting a 1:04.47 and 2:19.86. This was a season best 200 for White, boosting her to ninth in the national rankings and getting her a bit closer to her personal best of 2:16.57 from March of last year.

Photo Courtesy: MIT Athletics

The MIT women were led by junior Jessica Chen in the breaststroke events and 200 freestyle relay. Chen achieved the highest individual finishes of the day for the Engineers by taking runner-up honors in both distances. Her 1:07.79 and 2:26.67 were enough to post comfortable second-place finishes for MIT.

Chen also led off the 200 free relay, which clipped the Williams competitors by .12 seconds. She teamed with Veronika Jedryka, Lilia Staszel and Priscilla Wu to take the win in 1:37.55. Wu had a huge come from behind 23.64 split to give the Engineers the win. This split is faster than her 23.92 leadoff at the MIT Invitational, which is an impressive time even with a relay start. Ultimately, Williams took the meet 205-95.

Photo Courtesy: Hayley Good

For the men’s meet, Williams freshman Andrew Trunksy gave a Pierce-esque performance after winning the 1,650 (16:15.27) by over 16 seconds. Teammate Dan Needham was the next closest competitor. Trunksy then battled for the 500 free, but was not as successful as he was edged 4:45.85 to 4:45.67 by MIT’s David Morejon. Morejon also took the 200 free in 1:42.56 followed by Curtis Maher of Williams in 1:43.18.

The only other Williams victories came from senior Benjamin Lin the 100 back (50.43), 200 back (1:51.03) and 100 fly (49.55). He also led off the medley relay in 50.10. Timothy Kostolansky of Williams also had a big swim in the 100 back, posting a 51.45 to edge out MIT’s Daniel Smith by .01. Lin was challenged in the fly by MIT’s Bouke Edskes who touched second in 49.71. While he could not quite get it done in the 100, Edskes did get to the wall first in the 200 fly (1:52.16) and 400 IM (4:06.21).

MIT also won both breaststroke and sprint freestyle events, in addition to both relays. Justin Chiu (58.37) and Brandon MacKenzie (58.59) took the 100 breast, and McKenzie then stole the 200 in 2:08.05. Josh Tomazin led the 50 free in 20.82, just off his 20.74 from December. He also finished second in the 100 behind teammate Jeremy Bogle. The two swam 46.48 and 46.80, respectively.

Both teams have one meet remaining before their respective NEWMAC and NESCAC Championships. Williams will compete at the Middlebury Invitational January 27 and 28. MIT will host Amherst, another top ten team, on the 28th.

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Kristie Wisniewski

7 years ago

Nice! I still remember Brandon as a 6 year old swimming at Pennsbury Aquatics.

He was a great swimmer even as an 8&u. So cool he is having an awesome college career!