Wilkes Men's Swimming: MAC Championships Day 4
York, PA – The Wilkes University men's swimming team broke three more program records during the fourth and final day of the 2019 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championships at the Graham Aquatic Center on Sunday.
Results
In the morning preliminary rounds Timothy Sechler-Stone (Allentown, PA/Salisbury) qualified for the B final of the 200 Backstroke with a 15th place qualifying time of 2:05.82, breaking his own program record of 2:06.70 from the 2018 Diamond City Invitational.
The 100 Free prelims had a good showing by the navy and gold as four swimmers qualified for evening finals. Jared Byrne (Pequea, PA/Penn Manor) qualified for the A final after he qualified in second with a time of 47.36 to break his program record of 47.88. Joseph Antolick (Ringtown, PA/North Schuylkill), Nick Martino (Hummelstown, PA/Lower Dauphin) and Ziyad Khafagy (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) finished in 13th, 15th and 16th respectively to earn spots in the B final.
Justin Burda (Allentown, PA/Allentown Central Catholic) qualified for the B final of the 200 Butterfly with a ninth place finish and a new program record of 2:02.75 to edge Trey Harloff's (Apex, NC/Apex Friendship) time of 2:02.83 set on December 8 against Arcadia. Harloff also qualified for the B final with a time of 2:06.19 in 16th place.
In the evening finals sessions, Sechler-Stone reset his program record once again as he touched the wall in 2:04.39 to earn a 14th place finish in the 200 Backstroke.
In the 100 Free A final Byrne made the podium with a seventh place finish (48.09) to earn his team 12 points. Antolick moved up two spots to 11th (48.73) while Khafagy and Martino tied for 15th with identical times of 50.35 in the B final.
Burda and Harloff finished back-to-back in the 200 Fly B final as Burda took 11th with a time of 2:03.58 with Harloff right behind him in 12th place (2:03.71).
The Colonels finished the evening by breaking another program record as the team of Antolick, Harloff, Martino and Byrne combined for a time of 3:14.71 in the 400 Freestyle Relay to break their earlier season mark of 3:16.11 while registering a podium position with a seventh place finish and 24 points for the navy and gold.
Wilkes finished in seventh place out of 12 teams at the end of the four day event that also marks the end of their 2018-2019 campaign. The seventh place finish improved upon a best of 10th place that the team has been able to earn at the conference championship event in the five seasons of competition since the program rebirth.
