The New York University Men's Swimming and Diving Team kicked off the first day of competition on Friday, December 3, at the Bruno Invite, a weekend meet being hosted by Brown University in Providence RI.
Johns Hopkins University is also competing.
Following a preliminary session in the morning, finals were held in the evening.
The morning's preliminary competition was a great start to the weekend for NYU.
Jaeden-Hans Yburan (Livingston, NJ/Seton Hall Prep) earned an NCAA cut in the 200 IM with a time of 1:49.94. The preliminaries also saw all Violet divers qualify for the evening finals.
"The guys killed it today," said diver
Jack Callaghan (Palo Alto, CA/Palo Alto). "We all made finals, and it's great to see all our hard work pay off at the middle of our season."
Friday evening featured outstanding performances by the Violets, including several NCAA cuts and a team record. The 200 freestyle relay of
Ajay Watanakun (Bangkok, Thailand/Harrow International School),
Alec Reimon (Rutherford, NJ/Bergen County Academies),
Lawrence Mao (Yorba Linda, CA/Sunny Hills), and
John Piccinic (Colonia, NJ/Colonia) achieved an NCAA B-cut by finishing with a time of 1:21.59. An achievement in its own right, the relay team's performance also broke the NYU record.
In an impressive showing,
Thomas Pritchard (Durham, NC/Northern Durham),
Connor Vincent (Irvington, NY/Irvington) and
Graham Chatoor (Glencoe, Trinidad/International School of Port Spain) all earned NCAA cuts in the 500 freestyle with times of 4:24.71, 4:28.75, and 4:29.38, respectively.
"The race was a real dog fight," said first-place finisher Pritchard. "It came down to the last 100 or so, but all the hard training paid off. It's always great to race against a top-ranked team. We've got some great competition for this weekend!"
On the divers' side, Callaghan earned an NCAA qualifying score of 287.33 and placed third overall in the 1-meter dive.
Hunter Whitbeck (Acton, MA/Acton-Boxborough Regional) also qualified, finishing close behind Callaghan in fourth place with a score of 275.18.
"This is basically a dual meet between us and Brown on the men's side. Brown is a Division I school, but we stayed right with them all day long," Head Diving Coach Todd Kolean pronounced. "Callaghan had probably his best 1-meter meet of his NYU career tonight, placing third with Whitbeck right behind him. I think we're right where we need to be moving into championship season."
Friday's successes set the bar high for the much-anticipated meet.
"I was extremely impressed with our performance tonight," Head Swim Coach
Trevor Miele commented. "It was the first opportunity to swim fast since February 2020, and we didn't miss a beat. It was very impressive, and we're looking forward to tomorrow!"
Overall, Brown leads the Bruno Invite with 331 points. Johns Hopkins is second with 324 points and NYU trails in third with 291 points.
The Violets will return to the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center tomorrow, December 4, at 10:00am for the second day of competition.
