BOSTON, MA – Saint Joseph's College placed fourth with 124 team points in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Men's Swimming & Diving Championship at Simmons College over the weekend.
Proving to be one of the top men's swimmers in the conference, sophomore Alexander Gilvey (Windham, Maine) finished second in the 200-Back (2:06.44), placed third in the 100-Breast (1:09.61) and 100-Back (57.66), and was fourth in the 50-Back (27.54) for a team-high total of 24 points.
Freshman Ben Johnson (Belmont, Mass.) was one of the many bright spots for the Monks in the championship event. The first-year swimmer was third in the 200-Breast (2:29.61), finished fourth in the 100-Fly with a new program-record 56.76 time, and placed fifth in the 50-Fly (26.12) – efforts that totaled 15 individual points for Saint Joseph's.
The 200-Free relay team, composed of junior Chris Cullity (North Reading, Mass.), sophomore Andrew Merlino (Natick, Mass.), senior Stewart Emery (Augusta, Maine) and junior Evan Wright (Preston, Conn.), opened the two-day event with a runner-up finish (1:39.11).
Senior captain Thomas Smith (New Hartford, Conn.) finished fifth in the 200-IM (2:18.82) and sixth in the 50-Breast (32.06) and 100-IM (1:02.99) races while his classmate Emery placed fifth in the 200-Back (2:15.05) and sixth in the 200-IM (2:25.69) events.
Gilvey, Smith, Johnson and Preston Bowden (Biddeford, Maine) swam legs for the SJC 200-Medley relay team that finished third with a 1:47.60 time. Bowden also notched a sixth-place finish in the 50-Free (24.38) event.
Saint Joseph's is off until Saturday, January 18th when the men's and women's teams compete against Wheaton College and Babson College in a double-dual meet starting at 1:00 PM in Norton, Massachusetts.
Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
