WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson College men's swimming team bested Hiram by a score of 120-112 Saturday afternoon in a non-conference meet at the Henry Memorial Natatorium.
The winner of the meet on the men's side came down to the final event of the day, the 400-yard freestyle relay. The quartet of
Nick Belofsky (Aurora, Ohio/Aurora),
Andrew Ivory (Gibsonia, Pa./Mars),
Nathan Smith (Fort Defiance, Pa./Fort Defiance) and
Colin Higinbotham (Denver, Pa./Cocalico) claimed that event by over 14 seconds to secure the fourth consecutive win for the W&J men.
The 200-yard medley relay team of
Dean Kralic (Beaver Falls, Pa./Riverside),
Zishuo Ma (Los Alamitos, Calif./Los Alamitos), Smith, and Higinbotham opened the afternoon with a first place finish, clocking in a time of 1:42.56.
Ivory and Higinbotham collected top points in two individual events. Ivory won the 1000-yard freestyle with his time of 11:25.18 and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:32.61). Higinbotham remains undefeated in all of his swims his senior season, as he picked up the 50-yard freestyle (22.29) and the 100-yard butterfly (55.07).
Smith won the 100-yard backstroke by more than eight seconds, finishing with a time of 59.21. Ma followed with a winning time of 1:02.15 in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Kralic finished the afternoon with two second place finishes, coming in the 200-yard freestyle (2:02.04) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:16.67).
Matt Allgeier (Port Matilda, Pa./State College Area) finished third in the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1:13.96 and second in the 500-yard freestyle (6:28.12).
The W&J men improve to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in PAC meets this season.
W&J will wrap up their Presidents' Athletic Conference dual meets on Saturday, Jan. 22 when they travel to Grove City College. The PAC matchup between the Presidents and Wolverines is scheduled for a 1 P.M. start time.
