Crewe's historic 100 back highlights day three of SCIAC Championships
COMMERCE, Calif. – Freshman William Crewe made Chapman history as the first male swimmer to earn a spot on the podium on day three of the SCIAC Swimming & Diving Championships. Crewe climbed the podium after he finished third in the 100 back.
Crewe's historic swim was made even more special in the fact that he landed right on the NCAA "B" cut for the 100 back. After breaking the school record with a 50.77 in the prelims, Crewe was even better with a 50.27 in the finals to take third place in the event. He was less than half of a second off the leader.
On the strength of Crewe's All-SCIAC finish, the men's team stayed comfortably in seventh place heading into the final day of competition. With 238 points, the Panthers are 54 points behind Caltech but nearly 100 points in front of Whittier.
The women's team remained in third place after day three as well. The Panthers trail Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps with 345 points and hold a less than 20-point lead over Redlands going into the final events of the championships meet.
Crewe's record wasn't the only one to fall on the day as the Panthers kept up their rewrite of the record book. Freshman Josh Modglin actually broke Crewe's previous 100 back record with a 52.16 in prelims but Crewe bettered that record in the very next heat. Modglin finished 14th in the 100 back.
Both 100 breast school records went down as well with freshman Will Mamer swimming a 57.75 in the prelims to make the consolation final. In his consolation final, Mamer was part of a lead pack that saw the top-4 swimmers in the heat finish within 0.3 seconds of each other. Mamer was third in that pack to take 12th overall.
Freshman Jailey Reeves broke the school 100 breast record with a 1:0723 in the morning to qualify for finals. She moved up a spot in the championship final to sixth place when she bettered her previous record with a 1:06.39.
Crewe, Mamer and Modglin weren't done erasing records as the freshman trio teamed up with senior Quinn Gates to take nine seconds off the school 400 medley relay record and take sixth with a 3:25.72. The women's relay squad of freshman Hanna Heiss, Reeves, sophomore Molly Davis and junior Kristina Fong took fifth in the event while becoming Chapman's first relay squad to break four minutes in the event with a 3:59.02
Davis scored some more points as an individual when she took fourth in the 200 free with a 1:53.64. Chapman's current record-holder was less than half of a second off her school record time from a year ago. Sophomore Teresa Gerhold also took 10th in the event after winning the consolation final.
Fong led the Panthers in the 100 back with a 13th place finish and was one of three Panthers in the consolation final. Junior Matthew Nardozzi took 17th in the men's 400 IM with a 4:22.98.
On the diving board, freshman Simon Duyungan narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish on the 1-meter board with a NCAA Regional qualifying mark of 432.10.
The SCIAC Swimming & Diving Championships finish up tomorrow at the Brenda Villa Aquatic Center in Commerce, Calif.