Banrey Leads Regis in Friday Session at NEISDA Championships
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – GianCarlos Banrey (Roslindale, Mass.) earned two top-five finishes individually and contributed to both relays Friday as the Regis College men's swimming and diving team moved up to sixth place after the second day of the 2019 New England Intercollegiate Swimming & Diving Association Championships, held at MIT's Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center.
After posting the fifth-fastest preliminary time in the 100 butterfly at 52.70 seconds, Banrey glided through the water to a third-place finish in the evening final at 51.76 seconds, almost a full second quicker and a season-best mark. He also improved from the morning to the evening in the 50 freestyle, qualifying seventh in the preliminaries at 22.06 seconds before improving to a season-best mark of 21.81 seconds in the final to finish in fifth place.
Banrey led off the 200 freestyle relay final with a 50 free split of 21.84 seconds, joining with Connor Schwarze (Melrose, Mass.), Kevin Dugue (Roslindale, Mass.), and Joshua Unas (Santa Clarita, Calif.) to finish sixth in the event in 1:31.33, 0.69 seconds faster than their morning time. Dugue, Unas, Banrey, and Brendan Pike (Weymouth, Mass.) finished fifth in the 400 medley relay in 3:46.31, almost five full seconds quicker than their preliminary mark.
In the 500 freestyle, Grant Kollien (Acton, Mass.) qualified for the A-final, finishing sixth in both the preliminaries (4:58.82) and the finals (4:59.65). Pike finished fourth in the B-final to end up 12th overall, completing the event in 5:00.47 during the evening session.
Unas missed the A-final of the 50 breaststroke by 2/100ths of a second, but he came back and won the B-final in the evening to finish ninth overall with a season-best time of 29.02 seconds.
In the team standings, Regis is now in sixth place with 135 points, 26 points in front of Keene State. Roger Williams is in firm control at the top of the standings with 342 points, with Brandeis (219 points) and Norwich (216 points) battling for second place.
The third day of the 2019 NEISDA Championships begins Saturday morning, Feb. 23, at 10 a.m. with the preliminaries of the 200 medley relay, 400 individual medley, 50 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 backstroke, and 100 breaststroke, followed by the finals of the 1000 freestyle. The other six swimming finals commence at 6 p.m.