The Villanova men’s swimming and diving team secured its second consecutive victory with a convincing 178-118 win over New Jersey Institute of Technology on Friday, Nov. 3.
Villanova secured ten first-place finishes out of 16 events and 29 top-three finishes. The men’s team is now 2-1 overall in the season.
“I thought our [team] performance was fantastic,” Villanova head coach Rick Simpson said. “We certainly over-performed, and [the team] exceeded our expectations.”
The diving team delivered a strong opening one-meter diving performance, led by Junior Chris Jones, who took first place with a score of 274.58. Right behind him was senior Nick Jubilee, with a second-place score of 264.98. In the three-meter dive, Jones also took first place, knocking down a personal best score of 321.15. Jubilee followed up with a 295.05 score.
“I felt like I did amazing,” Jones said. “I just try to go out there, smile, and have a good time. Between every dive, I was dancing and trying to have fun. I knew that transitioning into the pool, I felt like I was killing it, and at the end, when I found out that I had a personal best, I was like, ‘I guess it worked.’”
With a sweep in both the one-meter and two-meter dives, the diving team added 26 points to its team overall score.
On the swimming side, the men’s 200-yard medley relay team all finished in the top five. Relay team A, led by freshman Cole Gorsuch, junior Mikey Thurk, freshman Zach Sutter, and senior Patrick Hemingway, took first place (1:33.24). Villanova’s second relay team took second place (1:34.21), led by sophomore Max Christensen, sophomore Wade Weston, junior Henry Gingrich and freshman Kaden Elkovitch. The third Villanova relay team came in fourth (1:36.83), guided by sophomore Josh Seidman, senior Henry Halloran, freshman Melson Arquillano and senior Aubrey Bowles.
In the freestyle, the Wildcats took first place in four out of five events. In the 50-yard, the Cats swept the top three, with Sutter securing first (21.21), senior Patrick Hemingway placing second (21.50) and freshman Kaden Elkovitch coming in third (21.57). In the 100 freestyle, the Wildcats finished in the top four. Sutter claimed another first-place finish (46.47), Thurk claimed second (46.75), Hemingway claimed third (46.82) and Gavin Peck took fourth (47.74).
Freshman Owne Nye has had a strong start to his rookie season. In the 1000-yard freestyle, he claimed first (9:41.09) and took third in the 500-yard freestyle (4:44.07).
“I am working a lot on my turns underwater, and I have fully changed my stroke technique,” Nye said. “I am straight-arming the whole time now, so [there is] a big change in that. [The goal this season is to get] top three in the Big East in the mile and hopefully top eight in the 500.”
Also in the 1,000-yard freestyle, Villanova secured a third-place finish from junior Patrick Casey (9:50.51). And right behind him in fourth was Theodore Morse (9:51.51). In the 200-yard freestyle, they also took a one, three and four finish. Junior Gavin Jones finished first (1:41.94), freshman Gavin Peck finished third (1:43.66) and sophomore Justin Nowicki finished fourth (1:44.66).
The men struggled more in the backstroke. Freshman Cole Gorsuch took third (52.56) in the 100-yard and sixth (1:59.27) in the 200-yard. Senior Carson Brockette claimed sixth (53.13) in the 100-yard and third (1:55.59) in the 200-yard. Sophomore Josh Seidman claimed fifth (53.06) in the 100-yard and fourth (1:57.34) in the 200-yard. Sophomore Max Christensen took fourth (52.72) in the 100-yard and Bowles took second (1:54.05) in the 200-yard.
In the breaststroke, the men had some strong finishes. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Mikey Thurk claimed first (58.49), followed by Wade Weston with a second-place finish (59.16). Henry Halloran also finished in fourth place with a time of 59.58. In the 200-yard, Max Christensen claimed second (2:08.31), Weston took third (2:09.10), Halloran took fifth (2:111.77) and sophomore Aiden Bunker took sixth (2:14.50).
In the butterfly, Melson Arquillano excelled in the 100-yard, finishing first (50.58) and second in the 200-yard (1:53.24). Sophomore Justin Nowicki finished third (1:56.24) in the 200 yard and Brady Tierney finished fifth (1:58.32) in the 200-yard. In the 100-yard behind Arquillano, junior Henry Gingrich got a fourth-place finish (52.67) and right behind him was freshman Kaden Elkovitch finishing fifth (53.64).
The men closed out the meet with three top-five finishes in the 200-yard individual medley. Christensen took first (1:56.43), Nowicki took third (1:56.81), and Bunker took fifth (1:58.12). With three finishing in the top five, the team secured 13 points from this event and won the meet.
Villanova will be on the road against La Salle University on Friday, Nov. 8. Then, the team will return home to face Providence College on Saturday, Nov. 9, at the Villanova Swim Complex.
