Caltech Men’s Swim & Dive Takes First at Oxy Invite

The Caltech men’s swim & dive team earned first place at the Occidental Invitational over the weekend behind a plethora of individual Beaver victories, multiple school records and a number of program top-10 times.

Caltech scored 1206.5 points to beat out Cal Lutheran University (755.5) and hosts Occidental College (627).

One of the most notable performances of the meet came out of the 100-yard butterfly, where sophomore Marcel Liu (Natick, Mass. / Phillips Academy) took first among 17 competitors with a school-record time of 48.61 seconds. The star toppled the previous school record of 48.73, set by himself last February at the SCIAC Championships.

It was a 1-2-3 finish for the Beavers in the event as first-year Alvin Zhang (Bellevue, Wash. / Lakeside School) earned runner-up at 50.23 and first-year Samuel Xie (Princeton, N.J. / The Lawrenceville School) grabbed third with a time of 50.54. Zhang’s time puts him fifth all-time for the event in Caltech Swim & Dive history; Xie just missed out on his personal best of 50.37 which has him at No. 6 all-time on the program record boards.

First-year Aaron Dumas (San Diego / Cathedral Catholic) picked up two school records over the weekend, both in the 100-yard backstroke; the rookie put up a 51.13 showing as the leadoff leg of the 400-yard medley relay before smashing his short-lived record later in the meet with an even-faster time of 50.31 in the individual competition. The school record entering the weekend was 51.38.

The Beavers swept the top three spots in the 100 Back behind Dumas’ school record and win, with Liu nabbing second at 51.67 and Zhang placing third at 52.01.

Dumas continued his dominant weekend as he won the 200 Back with a time of 1:50.17 to move up to No. 2 all-time in school history. Junior Simon Hu (Clarksville, Md. / River Hill) earned runner-up at 1:55.84.

First-year Anthony Wang (San Jose, Calif. / Evergreen Valley) earned first place in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving competitions, beating out several high-level competitors at both heights. The rookie scored 287.35 in the 1-meter and 272.20 in the 3-meter; his 11-dive score in the 1-meter (449.45) moves him up to No. 3 all-time in Caltech Diving history while his 11-dive score in the 3-meter (484.80) puts him at No. 2.

For his phenomenal showings on both boards, Wang was named SCIAC Men’s Diver of the Week by the conference.

First-year Thomas Fenton (Lynchburg, Va. / Virginia Episcopal School) won the 11-athlete 200-yard breaststroke and skyrocketed up to No. 2 in Caltech history with a lightning time of 2:00.76. Fenton beat out the next-fastest finisher by 3.28 seconds. Senior and 200 Breast school record-holder Jason Lin (Los Angeles / Taipei American School) followed at 2:05.90; rookie Daniel Wareham (Shanghai, China / Deerfield Academy) moved up to 4th all-time in the event at 2:07.04. Fenton’s victory followed a runner-up finish in the 100-yard Breast, where he clocked 56.72 to put himself 5th all-time in Caltech history.

The Beavers earned first in the men’s 200-yard medley relay as Dumas, Wareham, Liu and senior Sam Small (Ringwood, U.K. / Ringwood School) put in a blazing time of 1:31.65. The time puts the men third all-time in the Caltech 200 Medley records.

The men’s top 400-yard medley relay group took first place among all nine relay teams with a time of 3:22.46, putting themselves at No. 6 in Caltech Swim & Dive history for the event. Dumas, Wareham, Liu joined sophomore Tommaso Colombo (Shanghai, China / Wellington College International Shanghai) for the speedy time and the victory.

Caltech’s Group B secured second place in the 400 yard medley relay as Zhang and Fenton joined forces with Xie and Small for a time of 3:26.35. Zhang led off the race, clocking in at 51.95 seconds for his 100-yard swim of backstroke to soar up to sixth all-time on the 100 Back school recordboard.

Xie continued his dominant weekend with a victory in the 200-yard butterfly, clocking in at 1:50.95 to move up to No. 4 all-time on the Caltech 200 Fly leaderboard. Sophomore Reid Nussbaum (Cohasset, Mass. / Cohasset) followed in second (1:54.61) while junior Siddhartha Ojha (Lake Forest, Ill. / Lake Forest) was third (1:55.16).

Small secured an individual victory in the 50-yard freestyle, posting a time of 21.07 seconds to finish first among 17 athletes. The time puts the senior seventh all-time in Caltech 50 Free history.

First-year Athanasios Boutakidis (Pasadena, Calif. / Flintridge Preparatory) finished third with a time of 21.18 to skyrocket up to the all-time Caltech No. 8 spot for the event.

The men took 1-2 in the 200-yard freestyle relay, with Small, Liu, Colombo and Boutakidis taking the win at 1:24.52 to put themselves ninth in program history. Zhang, Lin, Ojha and sophomore Zachary Pestrikov (Rye, N.Y. / Iona Preparatory) combined for a close second place (1:25.81).

Caltech swept the 400-yard IM, with junior Max Chen (Boyds, Md. / Poolesville) taking first in Caltech’s all-time No. 9 time (4:10.15). Nussbaum took second (4:17.85) while Lin was third (4:19.15).

Ojha took first in the 500-yard freestyle at 4:42.24, just narrowly topping the second-place finisher who tapped the wall at 4:44.34.

Caltech’s fastest 400 Free relay group — comprised of Pestrikov, Hu, Chen and Boutakidis — took the win among nine relay groups with a time of 3:06.42, putting them 7th in the program recordsheets. The other Caltech group — made up of Lin, Zhang, Liu and Small — secured the ninth spot on the all-time leaderboard with a runner-up finish at 3:07.19.

Next up for head coach Andrew Brabson and the squad is a Jan. 4 home tri-meet against Cal Lutheran and the University of Redlands. Action begins at 10:30 a.m.; stay tuned to GoCaltech.com for more information.

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