ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's swimming & diving team sits in second place after the third day of competition at the 2025 Liberty League Swimming & Diving Championship with 1,137 team points. The RIT Tigers still remain atop the leaderboard inside Kelsey Partridge Bird Natatorium as they've totaled 1,313 and RPI are in third place with 996 points.
The first event of the evening saw RIT break a championship record in the 200-yard medley winning the race at 1:28.13 as they led from start to finish. The Bombers would score a third-place result with
Alec Kutsner,
Will Stanczewski,
Matthew Mitros and
Spencer Alderson team together for a time of 1:30.68.
Three Bombers competed in the 200-yard butterfly final, placing sixth, seventh and eighth. Sophomore
James Kissel took the sixth spot for Ithaca, recording a time of 1:52.39 while senior
Santiago Ludwig (1:54.29) and sophomore
Mike Ekert (1:55.78) trailed shortly behind in seventh and eighth place, respectively. RIT's Drew Scheib took the top spot in the event with a time of 1:50.66, which reset his previous championship record.
RPI's Jason Weller took first place in the 100-yard backstroke final, recording a time of 49.74. Sophomore
Evan Wardrop was the top-finishing Bomber in the event, clinching third place on the podium with a time of 50.92, while his classmate
Alec Kutsner trailed shortly behind in fourth with a recorded time of 51.12.
First year
Will Stanczewski was the only swimmer to represent the Bombers in the 100-yard breaststroke "A" final. He finished in eighth place, recording a time of 58.18. RPI's Nicholas Stefanidis clinched first place in the race with a time of 54.69, which was an NCAA B-cut.
The night closed out with the 800-yard relay, where the Bombers put up an impressive comeback performance. After spending the first two legs of the relay teetering between fourth and fifth place, the Bombers overcame a 15-yard deficit to claim a second-place finish with a time of 6:50.82. However, the officials ended up disqualifying the time as one of the IC legs was ruled to have getting off the blocks before their teammate touched the wall at the exchange. The RIT Tigers came out on top after leading for the entirety of the race with a time of 6:46.16.
In diving action, Gellert Kish earned his third career Liberty League title on the 1-meter boards. He impressed all day and totaled a finals score of 544.85, with Hobart's Daniel Barrientos finishing second at 526.50. Finishing fourth, fifth and sixth for the Bombers was
Ethan Godfrey (491.90),
Kian Long (490.50) and
Samuel Smith (428.15).
Ithaca concludes the Liberty League Championship tomorrow with the fourth and final day. Swimming preliminaries start at 10 a.m., diving at 1 p.m. and finals at 6 p.m. Prior to finals, there will be an All-Academic Team and senior parade at 5:45. Following the final event of the evening, the Liberty League will award swimmers and divers of the meet as well as honor the top three teams overall.
