The Massachusetts men’s swim and dive team took down NJIT 191-101 in its home opener, improving to 3-1 on the season while also handing the Highlanders (4-1) their first loss of the season.
“That we can withstand the hard work in the week of training, and still come in with a good attitude,” coach Russ Yarworth said about what the Minutemen showed against NJIT. “They attacked the races, and everybody wanted to race, it was really good to see that. When you have that team culture, it makes everything easier for the coaches.”
The Minutemen took 12 out of the 16 total events, with freshman Emerson Kiefer and senior Al Madden leading the way, taking home two wins apiece. Kiefer took home wins in the 500- and 1000-yard freestyle, while Madden claimed his wins in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke.
Other individual winners include Seamus Trzewik-Quinn in the 100-yard backstroke, Jamie MacDonald in the 200-yard butterfly, Ryan Pedrick in the 50-yard freestyle, Noah Witt in the 200-yard backstroke, Will Munstermann in the 100-yard butterfly and Tommy Cotner in the three-meter dive. UMass also claimed wins in the 200-yard freestyle and 200-yard medley relays.
The Minutemen had a sweep in four races today, including the 100-yard backstroke with Trzewik-Quinn pacing Michael Tartakovsky and Sanjay Sekar. The 50-yard freestyle was led by Pedrick, with Charles Rothenberger and Ethan Davey trailing, the 200-yard medley relay and the 500-yard freestyle that was won by Kiefer, followed by MacDonald and Dias Konysbayev.
Yarworth made a slight adjustment in the races today, putting MacDonald and Konysbayev, who usually do not participate in distance races, in the 500-yard freestyle. After finishing second and third, they caught the eye of Yarworth and potentially the other distance swimmers as well.
“It showed us, one: they’re in really good shape, two: they’re competitive, and three: it might give us some more options in our lineup, if we want to use them in the distance, also putting a little more pressure on the distance kids. It was really pleasing to see them do this,” said Yarworth, saying of Konysbayev in particular, “It was a big adjustment for him last year as a freshman coming from the Philippines. Totally different culture, different climate, different academics, different training. And this year, he’s got all that experience and he’s been putting it to good use as he is swimming tremendously.”
Another swimmer who received high praise from Yarworth was senior Luther Gordon, who finished the day with a trio of runner-up finishes, one in the 100-yard breaststroke, another coming in the 200-yard individual medley and the third coming from his contribution in the 200-yard medley relay.
“I was really happy with [Gordon] in the 200 IM, he really put one together. He shut his brain off, as he usually has a tendency to overanalyze sometimes, and swam fast,” Yarworth said. “He’s pretty pumped about that one.”
UMass has another home meet next weekend against Boston University, which is coming off a week of hard training.
“We’re in the recovery week of our training cycle so it’ll be a little lighter, but we’re still going to be working hard,” Yarworth said. “There is probably going to be about a 20-25 percent reduction of volume and intensity as we get into Saturday.”
The Minutemen will be swimming with the Minutewomen next week for their second straight home meet, as they go up against BU on Saturday, Nov. 2nd at 1 p.m. at the Joseph R. Rogers Jr. pool.
Joseph Aliberti can be contacted via email at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @JosephAliberti1.
