Two Provisional Qualifying Times Lead Tartans at Kenyon

(GAMBIER, Ohio) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's swimming and diving team started competition at the three-day Total Performance Invitational at Kenyon College on Thursday, November 30 with three events.

The 200-yard medley relay team of freshman Justin Britton (Falls Church, Va. / George Mason), senior Matthew Chu (Warren, N.J. / Saint Peter's Prep), freshman Max Gonzalez (Allison Park, Pa. / North Allegheny), and sophomore Richard Deng (West Windsor, N.J. / West Windsor Plainsboro South) opened the meet with a third-place showing after completing the event in 1:30.98. The time was .34 seconds off the school record set at the 2015 NCAA Championships but did provisionally qualify the group for the 2018 NCAA Championships.

Freshman Andrew Joyner (Holly Springs, N.C. / Tar Heel Springs Academy) swam the 1,650-yard freestyle for the first time as a Tartan and finished fifth overall with a time of 16:06.92. The time was nearly 10 seconds better than the provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA Championships. Fellow freshman Thomas DeLauro (Bridgewater, N.J. / Bridgewater-Raritan) also swam the long distance event and finished eighth in 16:22.25.

The opening evening closed with the 800-yard freestyle relay. Deng, Gonzalez, sophomore Rip Lyster (Naples, Fla. / Gulf Coast), and sophomore Sam Hawke (Malvern, Pa. / Episcopal Academy) placed seventh after completing the relay in 6:48.20.

Competition continues with preliminaries at 9:30 a.m. on Friday with finals set to start at 5:30 p.m.