Teams: Men's Swimming & Diving: Press Releases

Monday, February 28, 2005

BAKER WINS 200 FREESTYLE AS JUMBOS SET EIGHT SCHOOL RECORDS AT NESCAC MEET

MIDDLETOWN, CT -- The Tufts Men's Swimming and Diving team traveled to Wesleyan University over weekend to compete in the 2005 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Men's Championships and had a very good showing, finishing fourth in a field of 11.  The Jumbos had many strong performances, with several high finishes, eight school record times and several NCAA qualifying marks.

Leading the way for the Jumbos were juniors Brett Baker (Englewood, CO) and Jon Godsey (Dallas, TX), who each posted three individual top-five finishes on the weekend for Tufts.

Baker won the NESCAC championship in the 200 freestyle with a National B qualifying time of 1 minute, 41.53 seconds, breaking the nine-year old Tufts mark of 1:42.33 by Brian Herrick.  Baker also placed second in the 100 Free, finishing with a National B qualifying time of 46.64 seconds. He also posted a fourth-place finish in the 50 Free, touching in 21.46 seconds.

Godsey started with a second-place finish in the 50 Backstroke, breaking his own school record with a time of 24.12 seconds.  The junior followed this performance with a pair of fifth-place finishes, swimming 52.37 seconds in the 100 Backstroke as well as posting a 1:54.94 finish in the 200 back. He swam better National B qualifying times in both events during the preliminaries, touching in 52.25 and 1:54.36 respectively.

Sophomore Greg Bettencourt (West Granby, CT) posted a third place finish in the 200 free, finishing behind Baker with a time of 1:44.13. Senior tri-captain Seth Baron (Dallas, TX) also finished third in the 200 Butterfly (1:54.46), after earning a National B qualifying time of 1:54.27 in the preliminaries. The time also bettered his year-old Tufts record.

Five Tufts relays teamed for top five finishes at the meet. The 800 Freestyle team was the NESCAC runner-up with a National B qualifying and school-record time of 6:56.12. Bettencourt, sophomore Justin Fanning (Concord, MA), Baron and Baker made up the foursome. The 400 Free relay – junior Jason Kapit (Garrett Park, MD), Fanning, Bettencourt and Baker – swam third with their 3:08.16 time for another National B qualifier.

The 400 and 200 Medley Relay teams both set school records and posted national B cuts. The 400 group of Godsey, senior tri-captain Mike Rochette (Cumberland, RI), Baron and Fanning placed fourth with their 3:29.78 time. Godsey's 100 backstroke of 51.83 seconds to lead off broke Herrick's 11-year old Jumbo mark at the distance. The fifth-place 200 Medley Relay time of 1:35.24 was completed by Godsey, Rochette, Kapit and Baker.

Kapit added two more national qualifying times with a school-record 4:10.56 in the 400 individual medley preliminaries and a 1:5.27 in the 200 butterfly prelims. In the diving events, junior Todd Putnam (Andover, MA) finished seventh in the 3-meter competition, compiling a total of 356.95 points.

The national B qualifiers will now wait to hear whether their times make the NCAA Division III championship meet, which takes place March 17-19 in Hope, Michigan.

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