NEW LONDON, Conn. - The Coast Guard Academy men's swimming & diving team won their annual dual with the Merchant Marine Academy, 171-129, this afternoon at Roland Pool. The meet saw two pool records, with a competitor on each team setting one.
Coast Guard improves to 8-1, while the Mariners' first dual loss of the season puts them at 7-1. Kings Point will look ahead to next week's Skyline Conference Championship Meet, starting on Saturday, January 25th and ending the following Sunday. The Mariners return to the event, hosted by Purchase College this year, as the reigning champions.
The meet started with a bang as Merchant Marine diver
Thomas Cable (Litchfield Park, Ariz.) broke the pool record on the 1-meter board with his 333.07-point performance. Coast Guard sophomore diver
Colbrin Blanchette (Edwardsville, Ill.) scored 193.85, while senior
Drew Harris(Murrysville, Pa.) had 176.62. The duo scored 187.22 and 175.80, respectively, later in the day on the 3-meter board.
Senior captain
Sean Lyman (Pennsburg, Pa.) led the Bears with a three-win day. The All-American won the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:40.22), 500-yard freestyle (4:46.48), and 200-yard individual medley (1:55.06).
Fellow senior captain and All-American
Colin Twiss (Mahwah, N.J.) was another multi-event winner for the hosts, taking home the 200-yard freestyle (1:40.82) and tying the pool record in the 100-yard freestyle (45.81). Sophomore breaststroke specialist
Blaise Minckler (Hilton Head Island, N.J.) won the both variants of his event with a 58.33 in the 100-yard and a 2:07.35 in the 200-yard. Sophomore
Noah Reice (Wilmington, Del.) won the 200-yard butterfly at 1:53.63 and the 100-yard butterfly at 49.97 to become the only other individual event winner for Coast Guard.
Finally, the Bears swept both relay events. The team of
Zachary McGowan (Springfield, Va.),
John Kaleta (Morrow, Ohio),
Charles Gaines (Macon, Ga.), and Twiss won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:33.69; and the team of Reice, Gaines,
Luke Giguere (Belchertown, Mass.), and Twiss won the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:08.40.
Coast Guard gets a bye next weekend but will be back in action on the following with an away day at Clark University. The Bears won last season's match-up, 191-63, and the Cougars finished seventh out of seven teams at that season's NEWMAC Championship.
