New England Small College Athletic Conference Championships (Men): Day One

MIDDLETOWN, Connecticut, February 27. DESPITE winning just one event, Tufts University used its team depth to gain the scoring lead after the first day of the 2009 NESCAC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships, hosted by Wesleyan University. Tufts has 618 while defending team champ Williams found itself in unusual territory, standing in second place, 66 points behind Tufts with a 552 total.

Amherst is currently third at 486.5. Williams has won seven of the eight previous NESCAC titles and has outpointed the conference each of the last six meets.

The only victor for the Jumbos during the nine events completed on the first day of competition was senior James Longhurst in the 50-yard breaststroke. His winning time of :25.82 was a NESCAC, NESCAC meet and Wesleyan Natatorium pool record and gave him a comfortable .52 second margin of victory over defending champ senior Tyler Bonewell of Williams.

Another Williams senior, Norman Scott, rewrote the book on the 50-yard butterfly, covering the event in a NESCAC record, NESCAC meet record and Wesleyan Natatorium pool standard :21.97. He won his fourth straight 50 fly title in the NESCAC Championships as he looks to sweep the fly events over the three days. His :47.90 split during Williams' win in the 400-yard medley relay was more than a second faster the current NESCAC record for the 100-yard butterfly, boding well for his effort in that event on Saturday. The Williams 400 medley relay also set NESCAC, NESCAC meet and Wesleyan pool records with its 3:22.10 clocking.

Another individual standout finish on the first day came from Amherst sophomore Alex Fraser, who won the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:27.36. That qualified him automatically for the NCAA Division III Championships, one of three finishers in the race to do so. Also performing well for Amherst was defending one-meter diving champ senior Kai Robinson, whose 527.75 score allowed him to repeat as titlist and was just .65 off the NESCAC record of 528.40, and freshman Bart Federak, who captured the 200-yard individual medley.

Connecticut College stalwarts, freshman Tim Walsh and junior Grant Moryan, both won events and helped the Camels 200-yard freestyle relay open the meet with a victory. Walsh took the 50-yard backstroke while Moryan won the 50-yard freestyle.

Special thanks to the NESCAC for contributing this report.

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