Sears Breaks School Record in Time Trial; Tartans Eyeing Big Final Day

(CHICAGO, Ill.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's swimming and diving team was led by three third place finishes on Friday, February 15 on the second day of the University Athletic Association Championships hosted by the University of Chicago. The Tartans are currently in fourth place but sit just 4.5 points behind Case Western Reserve University for third place.

Junior Edward Sears (Boca Raton, Fla./Spanish River) swam a time trial of the 50-yard freestyle during the morning preliminaries and broke the school record which stood since 2002 with a time of 20.90.

The 200-yard medley relay team of sophomore Josh Lucheon (Knoxville, Tenn./Knoxville Catholic), junior Austin Bohn (Annville, Pa./Annville-Cleona), junior Terrence Wong (Solon, Ohio/Solon) and Sears provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships by finishing fourth in 1:32.80.

Freshman Matthew Nielsen (Ashburn, Va./Briar Woods) earned All-UAA status in the 400-yard IM by touching third n 4:03.48. His time was a season-best mark and an NCAA provisional qualifier. Sophomore David Campbell (Voorhees, N.J./Eastern Regional) also provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet with a time of 4:03.87 in the preliminaries. He finished sixth in the championship final in 4:04.89. Sophomore Roy Sung (Wayland, Mass./Wayland) won the B-final in 4:06.92 as freshman Jay Jin (Canton, Mich./Canton) won the C-final in 4:11.34.

In the 100-yard butterfly, Wong touched eighth in 51.12 as freshman Adam Pinson (Gold River, Calif./Sacramento Day) was seventh in the B-final in 51.50. In the C-final, sophomore Anton Razanav (San Diego, Calif./Westview) was fifth in 52.30, senior Brandon Yee (Danville, Calif./Monte Vista) was sixth in 52.60 and freshman Justin Chen (Irvine, Calif./University) was seventh in 52.88.

Sears touched fifth overall in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:41.92 as sophomore Andrew Yee (Danville, Calif./Monte Vista) was second in the B-final in 1:42.65. Freshman Steven Geier (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) touched right after Yee in 1:43.60.

Razanav earned All-UAA in the 100-yard backstroke, touching third in a career-best time of 51.56 and provisionaly qualified for the NCAA meet. Freshman Martin Smith (Washington, D.C./The Bolles School) was second in the B-final of the 100-yard backstroke n 52.76 as sophomore Michael Kellman (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) and Lucheon were fourth and fifth in 53.18 and 53.36. Jin swam in the C-final and finished third in 54.13 after qualifying with a time of 53.84.

Freshman Philip Farr (Campbell, Calif./Bellarmine College) had the final third-place finish of the night for the Tartans as he touched n 57.66 in the 100-yard breaststroke. His time was a season-best and a provisional mark. Bohn also swam in the championship final of the 100-yard breaststroke and finished fifth in 58.02. Sung finished fifth in the B-final in 58.98 with sophomore Cole Um (Federal Way, Wash./Bellarmine Prep) taking eighth in the B-final in 59.72. In the C-final, freshman Lucas Bruder (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette) touched second in 59.49 and freshman Matthew Dezenzo (Woodbridge, N.J./St. Joseph) was fifth in 1:00.03.

The championships conclude on Saturday with preliminaries beginning at 9:00 a.m. central time.