SWARTHMORE, Pa.—Once again, the head-to-head matchup between Swarthmore College Men's Swimming and the Gettysburg College Bullets went down to the wire on Saturday. Swarthmore led the Senior Day showdown 97-91 going into the final event. If Swarthmore could take first in the 400-yard freestyle relay, or get a combination of second and third place, they would have enough points to win the meet.
After some lineup shuffling by Gettysburg, Swarthmore stuck with its A-Team of Ben Freeman, Alec Lawless, Ethan Bergmann and Alec Menzer. Swarthmore trailed by a fraction of a second when Menzer, a junior, dove into the pool and swam a 100 free split of 46.42. Swarthmore took the heat with a time of 3:07.96, beating Gettysburg's 3:08.85, and collecting the 11 points necessary to give Swarthmore the 108-97 meet victory.
Menzer also grabbed first and second place in two individuals for an all-around solid day. Sophomore Jeremy Rockaway won a pair of events, and Lawless and Freeman had a solo win each.
Rockaway and Freeman combined with Horace Shew and Lonnie Chien for Swarthmore's first win of the day, the opening 400 medley relay (3:30.61).
Freeman captured first in a photo finish 200 free. He returned home with a time of 1:44.01, touching the pad just before Gettysburg's top finisher who had a time of 1:44.03.
Rockaway took the 200 IM in 1:54.85, and then won the 100 fly in 51.11, winning with 0.7 seconds to spare. Both times are third-best in the Centennial this year.
Lawless trimmed down his 100 free time to a season-best 47.17 en route to a first-place finish.
Swarthmore honored seniors Steven Chen and Jeffrey Mun prior to the meet.
Now 4-1 in Centennial dual meets, Swarthmore closes out the regular season on Saturday at Dickinson College in a 1 p.m. start.
