Bates College

Courtesy of Vanessa Williamson

The Bates men's swimming and diving team broke 14 school records over the course of four days at the 2022 NESCAC Championships.

Swimming and Diving 2/20/2022 8:58:00 PM Aaron Morse

More school records fall as No. 22 men's swimming and diving finishes fifth at NESCAC Championships

WATERVILLE, Maine -- Two more program records fell on Sunday and the No. 22 nationally ranked Bates men's swimming and diving team finished in fifth place out of 11 schools at the NESCAC Championships.

The Bobcats tallied 994 points, finishing just behind fourth-place Connecticut College (1012.5 points) and ahead of rivals Bowdoin (972.5 points) and host Colby (684.5 points). Williams won the meet with a conference record 2086 points.

Sophomore Mark Gregory (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) cemented himself as the greatest distance swimmer in program history, breaking the school record in the 1,650 yard freestyle with an NCAA "B" cut time of 15:41.55, good for fourth best in the conference. He is now the Bates men's swimming record holder in the 500, the 1,000, and the 1,650 yard freestyle races.

Meanwhile, this year's Bobcats continued to rewrite the relay record books. The 400 yard freestyle relay team of senior captain Pieter Cory (Dublin, Calif.), junior Nate Sommer (Terre Haute, Ind.), junior Nathan Berry (Augusta, Maine), and junior John Marcolina (Mystic, Conn.) recorded an NCAA "B" cut time of 3:02.82, taking fifth place in the race and setting a new standard for the event at Bates.

Sommer finished sixth in the 200 yard breaststroke, swimming the prelims in 2:03.43 and recording an NCAA "B" cut time of 2:03.85 in the final.

Cory and Berry both found themselves on the podium in the 100 yard freestyle, placing sixth and eighth respectively. Cory swam an NCAA "B" cut in the prelims of 45.09 and raced to the finish in 45.38 in the final. Berry hit the "B" cut standard on the nose in the prelims with a time of 45.27 before recording a finals time of 46.96.

Senior Andrew Hall (Little Silver, N.J.) also finished on the podium Sunday, placing seventh in the 200 yard butterfly with a prelims time of 1:51.38 and a finals time of 1:51.64.

Overall, 14 school records were broken over four days by the men's swimming and diving team. The Bobcats find out this week who will travel to the NCAA Championships. NCAAs are set for March 16-20 in Indianapolis.

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