WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – For the second year in a row, the Arcadia University men's swimming team captured the Diamond City Invitational championship, totaling 705 points to take home the team title. The Knights were nearly 100 points better than runner-up Misericordia (611 points), and almost 200 better than third-place King's (512.5 points).
BACKSTROKE: The Knights placed five swimmers in the top-15 of the 200 to start the day, with senior
Eric Lam (5th – 2:03.56), sophomore
Michael Melissen (7th – 2:10.10) and freshman
Dylan Gardner (10th - 2:15.42) finishing in the top-10. Junior
Mike Gallagher (2:19.05) placed 13th, while freshman
Jack Shoplock (2:19.21) placed 15th.
FREESTYLE: Junior
Grant Fisher was the runner-up in the 1,650 with a time of 17:31.58, trailing only Hood's Cameron Rogers (17:02.88), while freshman
Reed French placed ninth (20:00.06). In the 100, freshman
Tristan Highet (49.45), senior
Matthew Morano (49.71) and freshman
Mark Preedy (49.97) occupied the fifth through seventh spots on the scoresheet, while sophomore
A.J. Cawley (51.28) tied for 11th.
BREASTSTROKE: Freshman
T.J. Dalton and junior
Chris Nicolescu both placed in the top-10 in the 200, with Dalton placing third in 2:20.29 and Nicolescu placing sixth in 2:24.15.
BUTTERFLY: Junior
Jacob Schellinger paced the Knights with his runner-up finish in the 200, finishing the race in 2:08.03. Melissen followed in seventh (2:11.75), while freshman
Austin Lauer placed 12th (2:18.53).
RELAYS: The 400 freestyle relay of Morano, Preedy, Fisher and Highet touched the wall first in 3:15.31, besting the second-place team from Misericordia by 0.61 seconds. The 11th-place team of Melissen, freshman
Zach Bondurant, Cawley and Schellinger clocked in at 3:25.74.
UP NEXT: Arcadia will close out the fall semester at the 2016 Eastern College Athletic Conference Winter Championships December 2-4 at the Nassau County Aquatic Club.
