BALTIMORE – The UMBC women's and men's swimming and diving teams will end the 2021 portion of their schedule when they take part in the ECAC Winter Swimming & Diving Championships on December 3-5. The competition takes place at the Nassau County Aquatics Center in East Meadow, N.Y.
The Retrievers will be amongst a dozen teams hunting the ECAC title, a field which includes Columbia, LIU and Monmouth.
"We are really excited to be at ECAC this winter," said Head Coach Matt Donovan. "Nassau County Aquatics Center is easily the best facility in the northeast. It has hosted big meets like NCAAs, U.S. Open and The Goodwill Games. With platform diving, three heats of finals and some great competition, this will give our program the best opportunity to showcase our team and chart where we are as we progress into the second half of the year."
The men's swimming and diving squads won all but one event and set a new pool record in a 228-70 victory over VMI at the UMBC Aquatic Complex back on November 13.
To cap the meet, the quartet of senior Tiago Asakawa (Sumaré, Brazil), sophomore Ryan Harding (Laurel, Md./Reservoir), junior Gabe Laracuente (Gaithersburg, Md./Good Counsel) and junior Niklas Weigelt (Clayton, Calif.) completed the 200 yard freestyle relay in a time of 1:22.98. The previous mark of 1:23.43 was set in 2019 by a foursome which also included Asakawa.
The record capped a big day for Weigelt, who also captured the unlikely combo of the 50 (21.17) and 500 freestyle (4:41.92) events. For his effort, he earned the America East Conference Swimmer of the Week honor.
Senior Samuel Jyawook (Franklin, Tenn.) also doubled in the 1000 freestyle (9:43.12) and 200 butterfly (1:53.56). Sophomore diver Dom Tobin (Frankfort, Ill.) won both diving events, earning his first two collegiate golds. He amassed 248.48 points on the 1-meter board and 225.65 on the 3-meter board.
Senior Kai Wisher (Syracuse, N.Y.) paces the well-balanced and deep men's team with five victories on the season and fellow distance swimmer Jyawook has earned four golds.
UMBC returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 15 when they host Howard on Senior Day.
