The New York University Men's Swimming and Diving Team returned to action on Saturday, December 4, for their second day at the Bruno Invitational in Providence, RI. They were joined by host Brown University and fellow visitor Johns Hopkins University.
The men's diving events featured outstanding performances from the Violets. The morning saw all five NYU divers qualify for the evening finals.
Hunter Whitbeck (Acton, MA/Acton-Boxborough Regional) placed third with a score of 290.70, with
Jack Callaghan (Palo Alto, CA/Palo Alto) and
Sahil Das (Laguna Beach, CA/Laguna Beach) close behind in fourth (283.25) and fifth (280.15), respectively.
"I'm really proud of the whole team!" Whitbeck proclaimed. "We have all been putting in so much work in the pool and the gym even while finishing up midterms and gearing up for finals and I'm so happy to see it pay off. We really held our own at this meet, which was really impressive considering the caliber of the Ivy diving program."
The Bruno Invitational represents a unique opportunity to dive against Division I programs.
"I was extremely happy with how the team competed against Division I teams," Head Diving Coach
Todd Kolean commented. "To have all five men make finals and Hunter finish third in a very strong field was a great accomplishment."
The NYU swimmers had a day of great relays, NCAA cuts and personal-best times.
The Violets opened the finals session with an NCAA-qualifying time in the 200 medley relay, as the A-team of
Jaeden-Hans Yburan (Livingston, NJ/Seton Hall Prep),
Jacob Haines (Mount Laurel, NJ/Lenape),
Ajay Watanakun (Bangkok, Thailand/Harrow International School), and
Alec Reimon (Rutherford, NJ/Bergen County Academies) finished in 1:30.70 for third. Reimon anchored the relay by swimming the 50 freestyle in 19.8 seconds, a personal best and his first time under 20 seconds.
Individually, Ben Russell earned a cut in the 400 IM (4:00.07) and Haines qualified in the 100 breaststroke (55.77).
The men finished off the night with a cut in the 800 freestyle relay when the team of
Nathaniel Yeoh (Hong Kong/German Swiss International School),
Thomas Pritchard (Durham, NC/Northern Durham),
Tyler Walters (Garden City, NY/Jericho), and
Connor Vincent (Irvington, NY/Irvington) finished fourth with a time of 6:43.52.
"Another fantastic day of racing today," Head Swim Coach
Trevor Miele commented. "The men continue to step up and swim great. We had a ton of individual NCAA cuts today and some great relay swims as well - it's been a lot of fun watching them swim fast and I'm looking forward to seeing them finish up strong tomorrow."
NYU trails with 618 points as Johns Hopkins remains in second with 728.5 points and Brown leads with 854.5 points.
The Violets return to the Katherine Moran Aquatics Center at 10:00am tomorrow, December 5, for their final day of competition at the Bruno Invitational.
