Men's Swimming & Diving (4-12) Comes within Five Points of Fourth During NEWMACs

The Wheaton College men's swimming & diving team completed its season by placing fifth among seven institutions as host of the three-day New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship over the weekend. When the competition ended on Sunday, the Lyons had 360 points, just five short of fourth-place Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Nine school records fell during the meet, with sophomore Sam Dean-Lee (Rocky Hill, CT/Xavier) playing a hand in four.

In the meet's second event on Friday, Dean-Lee and sophomore Eddie Gillie (Haverhill, MA/Saint John's Prep) each twice surpassed the program mark in the 500-yard freestyle, with Dean-Lee's trials time holding up as the standard. Sophomore Corey Best (Brentwood, TN/Ravenwood) set a mark during the 200-yard individual medley trials.

Saturday saw a trio of program records fall, including by Best when he placed third in the 400 IM, which was one placement shy of an all-conference qualification. During the 800 free relay, Dean-Lee and Gillie sided with freshmen Devon Best (Brentwood, TN/Ravenwood) and Cole Larson-Whittaker (Penobscot, ME/George Stevens Academy) to better a school mark and take fourth in the meet. Sophomore Zach Fichman-Klein (Attleboro, MA/Attleboro) also highlighted day two with a program standard in the 100-yard butterfly. Classmate Jonathan Gold's (West Harrison, NY/Fordham Prep) trials score in the one-meter dive came within 2.25 points of Wheaton's eight-year-old school mark.

Four program records were eclipsed on Sunday, with Dean-Lee turning in a pair during the 1,650 free. In a sixth-place performance, Dean-Lee bettered the school's 1,650 free standard by more than 17 seconds while swimming the opening 1,000 free more than 11 seconds faster than the prior mark. Larson-Whittaker's opening 1,000 of the 1,650 free was also better than the former standard. Corey Best broke a Wheaton record while taking sixth in the 200 fly, Gold was sixth in the three-meter dive, and Devon Best surpassed a six-year-old standard in the 200-yard backstroke.