ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's swimming & diving team secured first place after the opening day of the 2025 Liberty League Championships, hosted by the Bombers at the Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium. The Bombers achieved first-place finishes in both the 500-yard freestyle and the 50-yard freestyle, amassing 461 team points to lead RIT (425), RPI (290), Skidmore College (206), and Clarkson University (169).
The first Liberty League Association and Championship record was broken in the "A" final of the 500-yard freestyle. Returning champion Ryan Cooke clocked a time of 4:32.32, surpassing the previous record set by Vassar's Max White in 2019. Cooke led the field, while James Kissel secured a third-place finish for IC with a time of 4:35.72, nearly five seconds faster than his morning prelim time.
Junior swimmer Matthew Janssen was the top Bomber finisher in the 200-yard IM, touching the final wall in fifth place with a time of 1:54.77. The event was won by RIT's Drew Scheib, who posted an NCAA B-cut time of 1:48.84. Senior Matthew Mitros showcased his power and speed in the 50-yard freestyle, leading from start to finish and touching the final wall in 20.20, just ahead of RPI's Mike Dowd (20.28), with both achieving NCAA B-cuts.
Diving action on Wednesday began with the 3-meter boards, where RIT's Gellert Kish won the event with an 11-dive finals score of 583.30. Teammate Luke Albanese finished second. The top IC finisher was Ethan Godfrey, who placed fourth with a total of 544.05, followed by Kian Long (468.50) and Samuel Smith (445.75).
Both RIT and RPI posted NCAA B-cuts to finish first and second in the 400-yard medley relay. The Tigers finished in 3:15.93, followed by the Engineers quartet at 3:17.61. Ithaca's team of Alec Kutsner, Will Stanczewski, Matthew Mitros, and Spencer Alderson finished third with a time of 3:21.86.
Complete results from Wednesday can be found here. Day two of the 2025 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 400 IM, followed by the 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, and will conclude with the 200-yard freestyle relay. The women's 1-meter dive will also take place.
