Tartans Closeout TPSC Invitational
(GAMBIER, Ohio) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's swimming and diving team finished the Kenyon College Total Performance Sports Camp Invitational on Saturday. The Tartans finished fourth overall with 1,022 points and ahead of Division I Davidson College and Division III DePauw University. The University of Pennsylvania took the title with 2,572 points.
Sophomore Mitchell Riek (Sunland, Calif./Bishop Alemany) cleared a provisional qualifying time in the 500-yard freestyle when he touched in a season-best 4:31.13 to place 12th overall. Freshman Daniel Li (Charlotte, N.C./Providence) won the C-Final of the same event to place 21st in a season-best time of 4:38.58.
Sophomore Gabe Bamforth (Cambridge, Mass./CRLS) topped his school record score achieved yesterday in the preliminaries of the 1-meter diving event with a score of 531.35 in the finals Saturday to win the event.
Three Tartans swam in the B-Final of the 200-yard backstroke with junior Michael DiBacco (Batavia, N.Y./Batavia) leading the way in 13th place in 1:54.84. Freshman Ben Baxter (Bernardsville, N.J./Bernards) and Richard Deng (West Windsor, N.J./West Windsor Plainsboro South) were just behind him in 14th and 15th place, respectively, with times of 1:54.89 and 1:55.10.
Senior Sivan Mehta (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) turned in a 50.22 performance in the 100-yard butterfly to finish 12th while freshman Ryan Fitzpatrick (Montgomery, N.J./Montgomery) was 17th in 51.56 and freshman Preston Vander Vos (South Windsor, Conn./South Windsor) was 18th in 51.63.
Freshman Rip Lyster (Naples, Fla./Gulf Coast) recorded a season-best time of 2:05.72 in the 200-yard breaststroke when he touched 12th and just ahead of senior Brian Jay (Wayne, Pa./Conestoga) who was 13th in 2:06.05.
One-event later, Lyster returned to the pool in the 200-yard IM and turned in a 13th-place finish with a time of 1:53.62. His time of 1:52.76 in the preliminaries is a team best for the year.
The Tartans placed sixth in the 400-yard freestyle relay to finish the meet. Freshman Sam Hawke (Malvern, Pa./Episcopal Academy), Deng, Mehta, and Riek touched in 3:04.48 and were 38-tenths of a second off from a provisional qualifying time.
The team will now break for the holiday and return to competition on January 14 at home against Westminster College and SUNY Geneseo at 1:00 p.m.