MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- The Bates men's swimming and diving team broke 11 school records, won five events, and turned in 13 All-NESCAC performances over the course of four days at the 2025 NESCAC Championships, hosted by Middlebury College.

The Bobcats finished in fifth place overall at the meet, tallying 941.5 points. Bates' five conference champions and 13 All-NESCAC (top-3) performers are both school records by a long shot. Their previous highs were two NESCAC champions and eight All-NESCAC performers.

A record-breaking meet culminated on Sunday with perhaps the most impressive day yet for the Bobcats.

Sunday Highlights

• Junior Max Cory (Dublin, Calif.) broke the NESCAC record in the 100-yard freestyle in the morning prelims, racing to the finish in an NCAA 'A' Cut time of 43.20 seconds. He then had no problem taking home his second individual NESCAC title of the meet, winning the championship final in 43.55 seconds.
• The Bates 400-yard freestyle relay team of first-year Nate Oppenheim (Easton, Conn.), sophomore Tim Johnson (Brewster, Mass.), sophomore John Weigel (Iowa City, Iowa), and Cory won the NESCAC championship, setting a Bates and a pool record with their NCAA 'B' Cut time of 2:57.42.
• Johnson broke the Bates record in the 200-yard backstroke with his morning prelims time of 1:46.78. Then he took second in the championship final in an NCAA 'B' Cut time of 1:47.64.
• Junior Marrich Somridhivej (South Windsor, Conn.) broke the Bates record in the 200-yard breaststroke with his morning prelims time of 2:01.34. Then he took fourth in the championship final in 2:01.73. Surprisingly, he was out-touched at the end by his teammate Oppenheim -- who grabbed All-NESCAC honors with a third-place showing -- touching the wall in 2:01.71. Oppenheim managed to cut nearly a full second off his prelims time of 2:02.69. Meanwhile, junior Kailer Tom (Daly City, Calif.) was sixth in the preconsolation final in 2:05.49.
• Sophomore Liam Friedlander (Pittsburgh, Pa.) broke the Bates record in the 200-yard butterfly with his morning prelims time of 1:49.60. Then he took third in the championship final, earning All-NESCAC honors with his NCAA 'B' Cut time of 1:49.62. Junior Trent Hieber (Granby, Conn.) and senior JB Whiteley (Tampa, Fla.) also scored points for Bates in the event, with Hieber taking second in the preconsolation final in 1:52.09 and Whiteley placing eighth in 1:56.87.
• Junior Matthew Kunkiewicz (Hillsborough, N.J.) finished 12th in the 1,650-yard freestyle in 16:15.88 while first-year Anton Kondratyev (Belle Mead, N.J.) took 13th in 16:16.29.
• Weigel placed third in the preconsolation final of the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.10 seconds, after swimming a prelims time of 46.03 seconds.

This marks the fifth time in the past six seasons that Bates men's swimming and diving has placed in the top five at the NESCAC Championships. Select Bobcats will compete at the NCAA Championships, set for March 19-22 in Greensboro, N.C.