ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's swimming & diving team stacked several impressive on the first day of the 2024 Liberty League Swimming & Diving Championships inside Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium on Wednesday. Senior
James Collishaw had himself a day as he won the 50-yard freestyle with a record setting time and helped the Bombers reset the championship record with a first-place finish in the 200-yard medley relays. After day one, Ithaca College is second out of nine as they have totaled 420 team points and in first is RIT with a total of 441. Wednesday's complete results can be found
here.
The Bombers saw four qualify for the "A" final of the 500-yard freestyle with
Ryan Cooke (4:37.47),
Matthew Stevens (4:42.29),
Santiago Ludwig (4:38.22) and
James Kissel (4:42.40) each putting together impressive swims during the morning prelims. Cooke was speedy as he won the event producing a season-best time of 4:34.08, which was just over a second slower than the LL Championship record. Also scoring top-5 finishes for IC were
Santiago Ludwig who swam a 4:37.73 for a third-place finish and first year
James Kissel who also surpassed his preliminary time with a 4:39.13, which was good for fifth.
Next up was the 200-yard IM which saw
Michael Paulos earn himself a third-place finish with a finals time of 1:52.04. Union's Matt Kenvin swam a time of 1:50.07 to earn first place as he bested out RIT's Drew Scheib in a photo finish with Scheib finishing in 1:50.09.
In diving action, competitors competed on the 3-meter boards, which saw RIT's Gellert Kish repeat as Liberty League champion as this time he won the event with a finals score of 580.15. Finishing in fourth for Ithaca was
Ethan Godfrey who had a great evening session and totaled a finals score of 480.55 as also scoring a top-five finish in fifth place was junior
Samuel Smith (400.60).
In what typically proves to be one of the most competitive events of the Liberty League Championships, the 50-yard freestyle was once again exciting with several outstanding times. Senior
James Collishaw reset both the association and championship records in the event with a time of 19.87, which was also just .02 slower than the current pool record and an NCAA B-cut. Teammate
Matthew Mitros also produced a season-best time as he touched the final wall in third with a time of 20.47.
Ithaca College also showed out in the meets first relay race, the 200-yard medley relay, which saw a great final leg swim from
James Collishaw as helped the Bombers foursome to a first-place finish. Collishaw along with
Alec Kutsner,
Matthew Mitros and
Michael Paulos combined for a time of 1:29.17, which bested RIT who finished with a time of 1:29.35. Ithaca's time of 1:29.17, reset both Liberty League Championship and Association records.
Day two of the 2024 Liberty League Swimming & Diving Championships continues tomorrow with swimming preliminaries at 10 a.m., diving preliminaries at 1 p.m. and finals for both at 6 p.m. The day will begin with the 200 freestyle relay, followed by the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle and 400 medley relay. On the boards will be the women's 1-meter dive.
