Wilkes Men's Swimming Beats Misericordia for First Time
DALLAS, PA – The Wilkes University men's swimming team swam past Misericordia University on Sunday morning to beat the Cougars for the first time in four seasons 145-112. The Colonels did so by winning seven events and taking second in the other seven races.
Results
The victory improves the Colonels to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the Middle Atlantic Conference. The four conference wins are the programs most since its restatement in 2014-2015.
Wilkes began the meet by winning the 200 Medley Relay with the team of Timothy Sechler-Stone (Allentown, PA/Salisbury), Trey Harloff (Apex, NC/Apex Friendship), Justin Burda (Allentown, PA/Allentown Central Catholic) and Nick Martino (Hummelstown, PA/Lower Dauphin) finishing in 1:42.53 to earn their team 11 points.
After a Connor Brought (Wellsboro, PA/Wellsboro) second place finish in the 100 Freestyle, Jared Byrne (Pequea, PA/Penn Manor) captured the 200 Freestyle (1:49.17) with teammate Joseph Antolick (Ringtown, PA/North Schuylkill) right behind him in second (1:52.97). Byrne won for the second time when he took the 50 Freestyle later in the meet.
Burda won his first of two individual events in the 200 Butterfly with a time of 2:10.83 before earning another win in the shorter 100 Butterfly (54.64) to earn the navy and gold a combined 18 points.
Sechler-Stone captured two second place finishes in the 100 Backstroke (59.84) and 200 Backstroke (2:11.32) to go along with his earlier relay win.
Harloff added to his relay win by taking first in the 200 Breaststroke (2:25.22) by a comfortable six seconds before narrowly missing out on another victory in the 200 IM, finishing less than a second behind the winner.
The Colonels wrapped up the meet by winning the second of two relays when the team of Antolick, Burda, Martino and Byrne took first in the 200 Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:30.96.
Burda won four times on the day, twice individually and as a part of both relay winners. Byrne also won two individual races while adding a relay win in the 200 Freestyle.
Wilkes closes out its home schedule when it welcomes Messiah to the Wyoming Valley Catholic Youth Center for a 1:00 p.m. meet on Saturday, January 19th.
