MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - The No. 20 Coast Guard Academy men's swimming & diving team put together another dominant showing Wesleyan University's annual Jayden Szkirka Memorial Championships. The Bears took first place with 1,027.5 points by the end of the two-day event and swam to victory in 12 events, twice as many as the next-best No. 23 Amherst Mammoths.
Senior captain
Sean Lyman (Pennsburg, Pa.) had an excellent meet with three first-place finishes, taking the 200-yard individual medley (1:52.44) and swimming two NCAA D3 B-cut times in the 400-yard individual medley (3:58.27) and the 1,650-yard freestyle (15:40.30). Fellow captain
Colin Twiss (Mahwah, N.J.) won the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:39.36. The 2023-24 All-Americans also rounded out the top three of the 500-yard freestyle as Lyman placed second (4:33.25) and Twiss third (4:40.81).
Sophomore
Noah Reice (Wilmington, Del.) joined Lyman in Nationals hopes by swimming two B-cut times of his own in the 100-yard butterfly (48.71) and 200-yard butterfly (1:50.13). Reice also won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 45.20, while Twiss finished second with a not-far-off 45.48.
Another exciting meet was had by freshman
Zachary McGowen (Springfield, Va.), who clocked three personal best finishes as he won the 100-yard backstroke (51.57), 200-yard backstroke (1:51.91), placed second in the 50-yard freestyle (21.15).
Other top-three individual appearances for the Bears included freshman
Luke Giguere (Belchertown, Mass.) slotting at third in the 200-yard freestyle (1:43.00); sophomore
Eliot Maravich's (Pittsburgh, Pa.) third-place in the 1,650-yard freestyle (16.40.87); and freshman
Isaak Fowkes (Woodbridge, Va.) finishing third in the 200-yard backstroke (1:54.33).
Sophomore diver
Colbrin Blanchette (Edwardsville, Ill.) placed third on both the 1-meter board (165.90) and 3-meter board (152.00), while senior
Drew Harris (Murrysville, Pa.) finished fifth on the 1-meter (145.30) and fourth on the 3-meter (146.75).
Finally, Coast Guard won three relay events. The team of McGowen junior
Victor Parks (Williamsburg, Va.), Reice, and Twiss outswam Amherst's A entry in the 200-yard freestyle relay by 0.18 with a time of 1:23.81; McGowen, sophomore
Blaise Minckler (Hilton Head Island, S.C.), Reice, and Twiss won the 400-yard medley relay with a 3:21.24; and Reice, McGowen, junior
Charles Gaines (Macon, Ga.), and Twiss took the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:03.35. The Bears also finished third in the 200-yard medley relay behind sophomores
Michael Carden (Kennesaw, Ga.) and
John Kaleta (Morrow, Ohio), Reice, and Twiss with a 1:33.11.
The Bears are out of competitive action until January 11, 2025, at No. 10 MIT. Until then, they'll be heading to Sarasota, Florida, for their annual winter training trip.
