Provisional Cuts Lead Way for Tartans at Kenyon

(GAMBIER, Ohio) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's swimming and diving team continued competition at the Kenyon College Total Performance Invitational on Friday, December 4. After two days, the Tartans are fourth out of six teams and are ahead of Davidson College and DePauw University.

Freshman diver Gabriel Bamforth (Cambridge, Mass./CRLS) surpassed his previously set school record and solidified his place at the NCAA Diving Regional in March with a score of 498.10 on the 3-meter diving board. His score put him in first place out of six divers.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Jack Dangremond (Colorado Springs, Colo./Air Academy), junior Sivan Mehta (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale), sophomore Josh Taekman (Chapel Hill, N.C./Chapel Hill), and junior Brian Jay (Wayne, Pa./Conestoga) touched ninth in a season-best time of 1:24.85.

Freshman Mitchell Riek (Sunland, Calif./Bishop Alemany) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships when he finished the 200-yard butterfly in 1:49.77 Friday night. His time was fifth at the meet and .23 seconds off the school record. Riek also met the provisional time standard in the 400-yard IM when he placed 14th in 4:02.76. Sophomore Edward Healy (Lincroft, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) also swam in the finals of the 200-yard butterfly and finished 10th in 1:54.12 while senior Matthew Nielsen (Ashburn, Va./Briar Woods) placed 17th in the 400-yard IM in a season-best 4:08.68.

Senior Steven Geier (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) was the top Tartan to finish the 200-yard freestyle, as he touched in a season-best 1:42.40 to win the C final.

Freshman Winston Chu (Warren, N.J./Saint Peter's Prep) trimmed time off his 100-yard breaststroke when he finished 13th overall in 57.02 to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Championships. Winston's brother Matthew had the best time for the Tartans in the event for the day when he finished the preliminaries in 56.91. Jay also hit a provisional qualifying time when he touched in 57.01 in the preliminaries.

Sophomore Benjamin Pierce (Lexington, Ky./Lexington Catholic) placed 24th in the 100-yard backstroke to lead the Tartans with a time of 53.59 while Dangremond was 19th in the 50-yard freestyle in a season-best time of 21.24

The final day of the invitational is Saturday with preliminaries in the morning and finals in the evening.