WATERVILLE, Maine -- The Bates men's swimming and diving team sits in third place with two days to go after breaking four school records Friday at the NESCAC Championships.
Bates has recorded 452 points through 10 events, 10.5 points ahead of fourth-place Amherst at the 11-team meet.
Friday morning saw sophomore
Max Cory (Dublin, Calif.) break the NESCAC meet and the Bates record in the 50-yard freestyle, racing to the finish in the prelims in a blistering 19.66 seconds. He slowed down just a hair in the championship final, finishing in second place with an NCAA "B" cut time of 19.91 seconds.
Cory was also part of a Bates record-breaking 200-yard freestyle relay team that took fourth place with an NCAA "B" Cut time of 1:20.71. First-year
John Weigel (Iowa City, Iowa), sophomore
Nate Pierce (Fairfield, Maine), sophomore
Marrich Somridhivej (South Windsor, Conn.), and Cory just missed an All-NESCAC top-3 finish by 0.01 seconds, but still scored 52 points for the Bobcats.
Somridhivej broke his own school record in the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 25.03 seconds in the prelims. He then raced to the finish in the championship final in 25.13 seconds, good for fourth place. Sophomore
Kailer Tom (San Francisco, Calif.) also qualified for the championship final, taking eighth in 25.66 seconds after recording a prelims time of 25.45 seconds. First-year
Noah Katz (Hallowell, Maine) scored additional points for the Bobcats by winning the consolation final in 25.41 seconds.
Senior captain
Mark Gregory (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) rounded out the record-breakers on Friday for Bates, breaking his own school record in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:27.73 in the morning prelims. He then raced to the finish in an NCAA "B" Cut time of 4:28.42 in the championship final, good for sixth place.
Elsewhere, first-year
Tim Johnson (Brewster, Mass.) impressed in the 200-yard IM, placing seventh in the championship final with a time of 1:51.93 after recording a time of 1:51.09 in the morning prelims.
The day concluded with Johnson, Somridhivej, Weigel, and Cory teaming up to take fourth in the 400-yard medley relay with an NCAA "B" Cut time of 3:16.98.
Bates is back in action Saturday for day three of the NESCAC Championships, with prelims at 10am and finals at 5:45pm.
