Despite setting two new school records, the men's swimming and diving team took seventh place out of eight teams for the second year in a row with 699 points at the Ivy Championships in Princeton last weekend.
Conor Carlucci '11 broke the record in the 200-yard breaststroke, with a time of 2:01.60, and tied his own record in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 56.06. Ryan Kikuchi '11 also had a record-breaking race with a time of 3:53.93 in the 400-yard individual medley.
Head Coach Peter Brown noted that 23 performances from the meet were among the top 25 times in Brown history for their given event, but the team ultimately came up 200 points short of getting in the mix with Columbia, Cornell and Yale for third place.
"We would have liked to place higher in the team standings, but I am not sure we have the depth to score the additional 200 or so points," Brown said. "Could we have found another 100 points? Yes, but 200? That is a stretch."
Bruno started the first day of finals with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Tucker Wetmore '10, Trent Huxley '10, Carlucci and Timothy Juhn '12 edged out Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth with a time of 1:22.48. Wetmore followed with a close 11th in the 50-yard freestyle — just .01 seconds behind Princeton.
The day ended on a high note, as the team of Carlucci, Kikuchi, Wetmore and J. D. Pinto '10 took third in the 400-yard medley relay after shedding seven seconds off the preliminary time.
The Bears headed into the second night of finals in seventh place with 142 points. Kikuchi helped Brown gain momentum with a second-place finish in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 3:53.93. With this race, he became the first Brown swimmer this season to get a NCAA "B" qualifying time.
Pinto followed with another fast swim in the 100-yard butterfly, taking seventh in the closest event of the competition. The Bears totaled 505 points by the end of the second day, maintaining their seventh-place position heading into the final day.
Kikuchi, Wetmore and Carlucci continued their impressive performances and combined for 58 points in the individual events on the last day of the meet. Diver C. J. Kambe '10 wrapped up the individual events by taking seventh in the one-meter dive.
The defending champion Princeton outscored second-place Harvard by more than 200 points to win the meet.
Despite the disappointing finish, Brown said he was proud of the team and applauded the spirit and effort of all swimmers and divers.
"We had many very good swims, a few disappointments, but overall a good meet," Brown said.
The coach added that he expects the team to get at least 900 points in the next conference meet.
