The New York University men’s swimming and diving team began its dual meet season with a 149-94 win over Division II West Chester University of Pennsylvania. The meet took place on Saturday, October 11, at the Palladium Athletic Facility in Manhattan.
NYU secured victories in eight out of eleven events. Sophomores Teddy McQuaid, Maksym Nechydyuk, and Hodge Dauler finished first, second, and third respectively in the 200-yard backstroke. In other individual performances, Pierce Downs won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 45.97 seconds, while Misha Kabunov finished the 200-yard freestyle in 1:42.80. Freshman Adam Mekrami earned second place in both the 1000 and 500-yard distance events.
Nechydyuk continued his strong performance from last season by winning the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:53.60. He also placed second in both the 200-yard backstroke (1:52.50) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:08.68). The team ended the meet with a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
“I’m incredibly proud of how the team showed up today,” said Head Coach Trevor Miele. “It was a great performance from everyone and considering that they’ve been training hard for the past few weeks, it’s no surprise. They raced better than I expected. It’s a good start. I look forward to the upcoming weeks of training and racing.”
The diving events started off the day, with NYU’s Makai Harder and Nolan Jennings taking podium positions behind West Chester’s Boden Burkhart in both the one-meter and three-meter dives. Jennings finished second and Harder third in the one-meter dive; Harder was second and Jennings third in the three-meter event.
“Makai and Nolan are beginning to compete their harder dives very early in the season,” said NYU Diving Head Coach Todd Kolean.” Saturday was a great day for NYU diving.”
NYU will continue its season at two upcoming competitions: a diving-only event at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Go Red Diving Invitational on October 25 in Troy, New York, and a men’s swim meet at Columbia University on November 1.
