WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's swimming team sits in second place out of nine teams after the first day of the Diamond Invitational hosted by King's College. The Colonels punctuated an impressive day by setting new program records in six events.

Results
 
The Colonels began the day by placing third in the 200 Freestyle relay with the team of Joseph Antolick (Ringtown, PA/North Schuylkill), Justin Burda (Allentown, PA/Allentown Central Catholic), Nick Martino (Hummelstown, PA/Lower Dauphin) and Jared Byrne (Pequea, PA/Penn Manor) finishing with a time of 1:29.72 for a new program record.
 
The first win of the day came in the 50 Freestyle as Byrne bested 49 other swimmers to win the event with a time of 21.91, breaking the previous Wilkes record by one hundredths of a second and also setting a meet record. Martino added a 10^th place finish in the event for the Colonels.
 
Byrne would back that up with a second-place finish (4:27.77) in the 400 IM, besting the previous program record. Trey Harloff (Apex, NC/Apex Friendship) finished in third with a time of 4:29.30 to help Wilkes earn a total of 44 points in the event.
 
In the 100 Butterfly, Burda finished in fourth out of 31 competitors to earn the Colonels 15 points while Martino (Seventh) and Shane Miller (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta) (10^th) also registered top ten finishes for the navy and gold.
 
Antolick would add a second-place finish to his day in the 22 person 200 Freestyle after finishing with a time of 1:48.79 to earn the Colonel 17 points. Daley added a ninth-place finish in the event to award Wilkes another nine points.

Antolick also recorded a new team record of 5:04.37 in the 500 Freestyle which earned him a seventh place finish and 12 points for the Colonels.  Christopher Daley (Center Valley, PA/Allentown Central Catholic) and Sechler-Stone scooped up four more points with 14th and 16th place finishes respectively.
 
Timothy Sechler-Stone (Allentown, PA/Salisbury) captured a third-place finish in the 100 Backstroke out of 22 swimmers to add 16 points to the team total. Jacob Wessner (Auburn, PA/Blue Mountain) finished in ninth to earn the Colonels another nine points.

The team of Byrne, Antolick, Burda and Harloff set the program record in the 400 Medley Relay with a time of 3:41.90 to place fourth in the race and earn 30 points.
 
Wilkes closed out the day by winning the 800 Freestyle relay with the team of Byrne, Antolick, Daley and Harloff breaking the previous school record of 7:52.03 with a time of 7:21.88.
 
Wilkes returns to the pool at the Wyoming Valley CYC for the final session of the competition at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
 
1. King's College                            440.5  
2. Wilkes University                     405
3. University of Scranton                394  
4. Baldwin Wallace University        328.5
5. Cabrini College                           280  
6. Lycoming College                       252
7. Hood College                              171  
8. Mount Saint Mary College          144
9. Stevenson University                  9