CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Thanks to four top-seven performances Saturday, the Regis College men's swimming and diving team ended up in seventh place after the third day of the 2019 New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association (NEISDA) Championships at MIT's Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center.
GianCarlos Banrey (Roslindale, Mass.) posted the fastest preliminary time in the 50 butterfly at 23.31 seconds to qualify for his third individual A-final of the meet. Despite a faster time of 23.24 seconds in the evening final, 1/100th of a second off his season best mark, Banrey had to settle for second place, as Gabe Pasqualucci of Roger Williams won the event in 22.93 seconds.
Joshua Unas (Santa Clarita, Calif.) qualified for the A-final in the 100 breaststroke by just 0.39 seconds with a preliminary time of 1:03.20, but then he finished seventh in the evening race in 1:02.80, only 9/100ths of a second off his season best mark.
Unas and Banrey joined with Kevin Dugue (Roslindale, Mass.) and Connor Schwarze (Melrose, Mass.) to finish seventh in the 200 medley relay, improving their preliminary time by 33/100ths of a second with an evening mark of 1:42.92.
The morning session wrapped up with the finals of the 1000 freestyle, and Grant Kollien (Acton, Mass.) posted a season-best time of 10:21.08 to finish in sixth place. Brendan Pike (Weymouth, Mass.) touched the wall second in the B-final of the 200 freestyle to finish 10th overall in the event with a season-best time of 1:49.62, almost a full second quicker than his preliminary time.
As a team, Regis completed the day with 208 points to sit in seventh place, far ahead of eighth place Husson but 30 points behind Keene State in sixth place. Roger Williams is on top with 646 points, with four teams behind the Hawks battling for second place: Brandeis (386), Norwich (378), UMass Dartmouth (370), and Bridgewater State (370).
The final day of the 2019 NEISDA Championships begins Sunday morning, Feb. 24, at 10 a.m. with the preliminaries of the 100 freestyle, 50 backstroke, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 100 individual medley, and 400 freestyle relay, followed by the early final heats of the 1650 freestyle. The seven swimming finals commence at 5:30 p.m.