MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The Bowdoin men's swimming & diving team sits in fifth place following the first full day of competition at the NESCAC Championships.

The Polar Bears end the first full day in fifth place with 431.5 points, just 3.5 points behind Colby and 27.5 ahead of Bates, as the Maine teams line up to make this a state battle in the team standings. 

Meet Highlights

• On Thursday night the 800 freestyle relay of Karl Sarier, Andrew Macdonald, Jacob Baltaytis, and Coleman Komishane set a new school record of 6:51.22..
• Friday the Polar Bears returned for a huge day. On Friday morning first-year Ted Mebust knocked a full eight tenths of a second off the 50 backstroke school record (a 23.79 set in 2012), touching in 22.98. At night he went even faster, finishing as NESCAC Runner-Up in 22.59. First-year Justin Yang was 16th in 24.51.
• Friday night kicked off with Mebust leading off the 200 freestyle relay, touching in 20.50, breaking the oldest swimming school record on the board (a 20.61 set by Nate Mecray in 2011). The relay of Michael O'Neal, Sarier, and Julian Abaldo finished in 1:22.60, a new school record and third overall.
• Sophomore Michael Tirone finished eighth in the 50 breaststroke in 26.37. Jacob Baltaytis and Julian Abaldo were 11th and 12th in the 50 fly in 22.88 and 22.94, respectively. 
• In the 500 freestyle Coleman Komishane and Dan Williams finished 19th and 21st in times of 4:37.93 and 4:39.46.
• Senior Stephen Pastoriza touched 21st in the 200 IM with a 1:54.80. Classmate Sarier was runner up in the event, stopping the clock in 1:51.30.
• O'Neal added points with an 18th place 21.41 50 freestyle. 
• On the boards Qyn Byrne finished ninth with a score of 302.85 points while Irfan Dotani was 10th with 299.30 points. Diving at night, first-year Henry Isaacson finished sixth with 405.10 points.
• Senior Mitchell Ryan was a repeat winner in the 1-meter diving competition. Entering the final dive of the competition, Ryan needed a dive of 56 points or better to overtake Amherst's Bennett Fagan and answered, recording a score of 57.50 to take first place by 1.60 points. Fagan, a junior, finished with a score of 464.30, while junior Mike Chirico of Middlebury recorded a mark of 445.90.
• In the final event, the 400 medley relay Yang led off the B relay with a 100 backstroke split of 51.61, a new school record, taking down a 2012 mark of 51.87. Pastoriza, Abaldo, and Macdonald completed the relay, leading it to fourth among the Bs and 15th overall in 3:25.27.
• Mebust then led off the A relay, lowering Yang's fresh school record down to 50.21. Mebust, Tirone, Baltaytis, and Sarier combined for a school record time and fourth place finish in 3:22.33.

Up Next

• The Polar Bears continue competition on Saturday at Middlebury.