Two Relays Set School Records as Tartans Open UAA Championships

(CHICAGO, Ill.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's swimming and diving team is currently in fifth place after the first day of competition at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships hosted by the University of Chicago. Both the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard medley relay set new school records.

On Wednesday, sophomore Gabe Bamforth (Cambridge, Mass./CRLS) placed second with 496.35 points on the 1-meter diving board to kick off the championships.

The 200-yard freestyle relay of senior Brian Jay (Wayne, Pa./Conestoga), freshman Richard Deng (West Windsor, N.J./West Windsor Plainsboro South), freshman Sam Hawke (Malvern, Pa./Episcopal Academy) and senior Dustin Ferzacca (Beverly, Mass./Manchester Essex) finished fifth with a time of 1:23.30 to begin the evening session. That time set a new school record, overtaking the time of 1:23.46 set at the UAA Championships in 2005 and 2014.

Sophomore Mitchell Riek (Sunland, Calif./Bishop Alemany) placed fourth in the 500-yard freestyle when he touched in 4:31.68. His time provisionally qualifies him for the NCAA Championships but was .55 seconds off his season-best. Freshmen Jacob Buckheit (Naples, Fla./Community School of Naples) and Daniel Li (Charlotte, N.C./Providence) were in the B-final of the 500-yard freestyle and finished fourth and seventh in times of 4:37.59 and 4:39.03, respectively. Freshman Jack Hoagland (Colts Neck, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) also had a turn in the pool in the event in the C-final which he finished fifth in 4:42.25.

Freshman Rip Lyster (Naples, Fla./Gulf Coast) touched seventh overall in the 200-yard IM with a provisional qualifying and season-best time of 1:51.84. Sophomore teammate Jack Lance (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) competed in the C-final and touched fourth for 20th overall in 1:54.82.

In the final individual event of the night, Hawke touched 13th overall in the 50-yard freestyle in a career-best 21.27 seconds. Deng placed 21st overall in a career-best 21.55 seconds while Jay touched 22nd in 21.57 seconds.

The 400-yard medley relay closed the evening with a fourth-place finish in a new school record time, topping the record last set in 2003. Junior Michael DiBacco (Batavia, N.Y./Batavia), sophomore Winston Chu (Warren, N.J./Saint Peter's Prep), senior Sivan Mehta (Scarsdale, N.Y./Scarsdale) and Hawke touched the wall in 3:22.19. The time was a season-best for the relay and a provisional qualifying mark.

The Tartans will return to the pool for seven events on Friday with preliminaries in the morning and finals beginning at 6:30 p.m. CT.