St. Mary's City, Md. – Sophomore Matt Walchuck (Middletown, Md./Middletown) won twice as St. Mary's College of Maryland men's swimming returned to Capital Athletic Conference action Saturday afternoon against the University of Mary Washington. Mary Washington (6-2, 3-0 CAC) topped the Seahawks (5-8, 2-2 CAC) by a 140-64 margin.
Walchuck captured a pair of freestyle events as he captured the 100 and 200 distances. Walchuck bested Mary Washington's Tyler Gimple by .43 hundredths of a second for gold in the 200 free with a time of 1:47.46. He then beat Matthew Garstka by .25 hundredths of a second for first place in the 100 free, touching the wall first in 49.41.
Junior Grant Burgess (Fallston, Md./Fallston) battled for second in the 500 freestyle as Burgess out-touched Chris Cassingham by one-hundredth of a second for the win in 4:56.93. Walchuck picked up a second-place finish in the 200 breaststroke in 2:20.55 while first-year Kieran Broder (Olney, Md./Georgetown Prep) came in third in 2:21.91.
Senior captain Bobby Witkop (Chevy Chase, Md./Bethesda-Chevy Chase) finished second in the 200 butterfly in 2:05.39 while the foursome of junior Michael Speer (Springfield, Va./West Springfield), Witkop, sophomore Andrew Braker (Olney, Md./Sherwood), and junior Zach Lilley (Myersville, Md./Middletown) claimed second in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:32.29.
The Seahawks posted a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay in 1:44.08 behind the efforts of Lilley, Broder, Burgess, and Braker. First-year Max Madden (Cape St. Clair, Md./Broadneck) added a third-place finish in the 1000 freestyle in 10:39.98 while sophomore Andrew Braun (Bowie, Md./DeMatha Catholic) placed fourth in 11:06.54.
Burgess notched a third-place finish in the 400 individual medley in 4:28.15 while Lilley tallied a fourth-place finish in the 200 backstroke in 2:09.42. First-year Lucas Delgado (Bowie, Md./Gonzaga) paced St. Mary's in the 50 freestyle with a fifth-place finish in 23.50.
St. Mary's returns to the pool next Saturday, January 24th as the Seahawks travel to the Eastern Shore to wrap up the conference regular season with a dual meet at Salisbury University. Meet begins at 1:00 p.m.
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