Men’s Swim & Dive Dominates Lehigh

Friday, January 8

West Point, NY

5 PM

Army West Point

191

Lehigh

Men’s Swim & Dive Dominates Lehigh

January 08, 2016 | Men's Swimming and Diving

RESULTS

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point men's swimming and diving team downed Patriot League foe Lehigh, 191-91, in Friday night's dual-meet at Crandall Pool. The Black Knights placed first in 12 swimming events and both diving events, and swept in three competitions to improve to 5-1.

"Tonight was a good starting place for second semester," said head coach Mickey Wender. "There is still room for improvement across the board. There were definitely some highlights, but it was mostly learning experience. This is something to build off of for Bucknell tomorrow and the final weeks of the season leading into the conference meet. We are looking forward to sending our seniors off in style tomorrow."

The Black Knights began the meet with a first-through-third finish in the 400 medley relay. Josh Sembrano, Joe Daniels, Austin Kong and Brandon McCredie placed first after finishing in 3:27.15. Matt McPheters, Colin Kanzari, Sean Regan and Adam Sjholm were second (3:29.57), while Pierre Archambeau, Neon Stern, Sam Mo and Kyle McElwee were third (3:30.62).

Tom Ottman out-touched the competition in the 1000 free to place first with a time of 9:29.10. Clay Harmon placed third (9:47.18) and was followed by Jason Hunt who was fourth (10:38.60).

Evin Rude was first in the 200 free after clocking a 1:40.84, and was followed by Devin McCall who placed third with a time of 1:42.67.

Sembrano and Michael Stanchi went one-two in the 100 back with times of 49.60 and 53.57. Alex Dempsey trailed closely behind after touching the wall in 54.36.

In the 100 breast, Army went first-fourth. Daniels finished in 58.57 to place first and was followed by Kanzari (59.66), Nick Treiberg (59.94) and Pat Wall (1:00.56).

Jay Yang had a time of 1:50.45 in the 200 fly to place first. Regan and Zach Blankenbeker were third and fourth with times of 1:54.23 and 1:54.29.

Chris Szekely recorded first-place times in the 50 free (20.85) and 100 free (45.44) for the Black Knights. Yang earned another win on the night when he clocked a 1:51.60 in the 200 back. McPheters was second with a time of 1:53.36, and Dempsey was fourth in 1:56.27.

Army swept the 200 breast with Mo (2:07.03), Colin Kanzari (2:13.60), Ander Thompson (2:14.19) and Daniels (2:18.19) placing first through fourth.

In the 500 free, Rude earned another first-place finish after recording a time of 4:38.73, and was followed by Ottman who touched the wall in 4:39.42 to place second.
Austin Kong touched the wall in 50.51 in the 100 fly to place first. Regan (51.10) and Sembrano (51.22) trailed to place third and fourth.

In the final event of the night, the Army 200 free relay teams were separated by stroke groups. The freestylers handily defeated the other Army groups, but the breaststrokers (Mo, Stern, Wall and Kanzari) topped the backstrokers (Sembrano, Stanchi, Dempsey and McPheters) by half a second.

Army also saw success in the diving events. Joe Frullaney placed first off the 1-meter. He tallied a score of 248.84 and was followed by Edward Emery who earned a mark of 165.75. Off the 3-meter, Emery was first with 214.20 points.

The Black Knights will return to Crandall Pool to host senior day prior to the dual-meet versus Bucknell. The team will recognize firsties Pierre Archambeau, Zach Blankenbeker, Alex Dempsey, Joe Frullaney, Colin Kanzari, Austin Kong, Sam Mo, Adam Sjholm, Chris Szekely, Nick Treiberg and Aaron Yoshizuka along with those from the women's team; Jen Clay, Jess Fabrizio, Kate Kinley, Molly Mucciarone and Shannon Rogers prior to the 1 p.m. meet.

"I've always felt like the teams that I have coached in particular live and die by their senior class," stated Wender. "This particular class has been extremely consistent. I think that this group of seniors sees themselves as a corner stone group in terms of what we are trying to accomplish and the goals that we have for the program. There is no question that they've taken us to another level and I think there is a real sense of accomplishment and optimism about the foundation they've helped establish for the future and what they're capable of doing this year.

"I think this class has also been good at empowering the under classmen," Wender said. "They have given them the skills and autonomy they need to perform to their full potential. These seniors have been good mentors and role models. There is a real sense of pride, ownership and commitment with this group and I am really happy with this senior class."

For up-to-date information about Army swimming and diving, please follow @ArmyWP_SwimDive on Twitter and Instagram.