Splashing into Success: A Triumphant Season Kickoff for Swimming and Diving!

Waterville, Maine
1/11/2025

The Colby Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving teams both commenced 2025 with impressive wins against Middlebury College on Saturday afternoon. The men triumphed with a score of 163-135 while the women secured a victory of 157-141. After enduring a challenging 10 days of the latter part of winter training, the teams seized every opportunity and emerged victorious once again. The men dominated by winning 12 out of the 16 events, whereas the women claimed victories in 9 out of 16. Besides the wins, the depth of the squad contributed significantly to their overall triumph.

From the men’s team, 8 athletes were event victors. The competition kicked off and concluded with victories in the 200 Medley Relay (Brandon Xiong, Alex Maclennan, Ethan Chang, Michael Fiechter) and the 200 Free Relay (Xiong, Chang, Carson Rehkopf, Fiechter). Xiong (50 Backstroke, 100 Backstroke), Chang (50 Free, 50 Butterfly), Rehkopf (200 Free, 100 Free), and Maclennan (100 Breaststroke, 200 IM) all achieved individual wins in 2 events each. Other winners included Ivan Knoepflmacher on the 1 M board and Brandon Morrison in the 100 Butterfly. Additionally, Curtis Johnson entered the Colby Swimming all-time list at 11th place with his 2nd place finish in the 1000 free.

On the women’s side, the #20 ranked Mules maintained their unbeaten streak with this victory. The meet commenced strongly with a win in the 200 Medley Relay (Gabriella Landau, Kellen Mottl, Lexi Asch, Eliza Marco) followed by a close victory by Zoe Buzzelli in the 200 Free, where she won by .01. On the diving boards, Alexandra Friedman excelled, winning both the 1 M and 3 M events by over 30 points each. Mottl added two wins in the 50 and 100 Breaststroke. Individual wins were also claimed by Caitlin Lacey in the 100 Butterfly, Tahlia Crowley in the 100 Backstroke, and Asch in the 50 Butterfly.

The Mules aim to continue their streak when they face Worcester Polytechnic Institute next Saturday, January 18th at 1:00 pm in Waterville.