GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Ursinus College men's swimming team found itself in sixth place after the first day of the Centennial Conference championships.
The Bears posted 99 points on Day One. Host Gettysburg leads the pack with 207 points, followed closely by Washington College (183.5).
The 200-yard freestyle relay team featuring senior Nicholas DiPalo, junior Dylan Cooper, sophomore Colin McNamara, and freshman Travis Venables set a new school record (1:25.71), nearly a full second ahead of the previous program benchmark and good for a fifth-place finish.
Junior Marcus Wagner collected a bronze medal in the 500 free, posting a time of 4:41.03 to earn 16 points for the Bears. Senior Chris Barthold was seventh in the B final with a 4:50.54, just behind the 4:50.06 (eighth all-time at Ursinus) that he recorded in the prelims.
Venables won the B final in the 50 free. His clocking of 21.58 was a personal best and vaulted him to third on the program's all-time chart. After placing 13th in the prelims, Venables turned in the seventh-best finals time.
The 400-yard medley relay grouping of junior William Benn, freshman Devin Nielsen, senior Chris Hoops, and Cooper finished fifth in the A final with a mark of 3:31.12. Seniors James Marrone and Keith Larkin joined McNamara and Venables to place seventh in the B final (3:34.13).
The Bears begin the second day of championship action with the first of the morning's prelims, featuring the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, and 100 backstroke, at 10 a.m.