Meet Results
Piscataway, NJ ... The College of New Jersey men’s swimming and diving team holds a substantial lead heading into the final day of the Metropolitan Conference Championships and find themselves in good position to cop their third straight MET title.
The Lions have tallied 1019 points through the first two days. US Merchant Marine Academy is currently in second place with 737.5 points and Southern Connecticut University ranks third with 654 points.
Holding the top seed entering the 200-medley relay, James Vanbiervliet (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough), Myles O’Connor (Los Angeles, CA), Adam Schneider (Cherry Hill, NJ/Cherry Hill East), and Shawn Kircher (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North) narrowly missed an NCAA automatic qualifier as they placed first with a time of 1:31.95. The foursome did earn an NCAA provisional.
Junior Tom Medvecky (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway) picked up where he left off on Friday taking first in the 100-yard butterfly with a winning time of 50.79. Medvecky also registered another NCAA provisional qualifier. Junior Tim Rauch (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) placed second in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:08.43. Rauch earned an NCAA B-cut while freshman Mike Caputo (Staten Island, NY/Curtis) placed fourth finishing in 4:11.91.
Sophomore Mike Vernoia (Hillsborough, NJ/Immaculata) and Kircher posted NCAA provisional times in their preliminary and final heats. Vernoia won the race with a time of 1:40.18 and Kircher placed second touching the wall in 1:41.89.
The senior tandem of O’Connor and Eric Rohrs (Congers, NY/Clarkstown North) placed second and fourth in the 100-yard breast stroke. O’Connor registered a NCAA B-cut time of 56.07 while Rohrs posted a provisional time with a 58.85 finish.
Vanbiervliet took first in the 100-yard backstroke event posting an NCAA provisional time of 51.31.
Medvecky, Kircher, Vernoia, and Ryan Clark (Ocean City, NJ/St. Augustine) capped a successful day off by winning the 800-yard freestyle relay. They notched a B-cut time of 6:46.21.
The men’s team will look to finish the field off tomorrow morning at Rutgers University in Piscataway, NJ.