Tartans Complete Competition at Nike Invitational

Dec. 1 – (GAMBIER, Ohio) – The men’s swimming team of Carnegie Mellon University finished the Nike Invitational at Kenyon College in fourth place ahead of Division I Davidson College and Division III Johns Hopkins University and Washington & Lee University.

Sophomore John Johnson (Allentown, Pa.), freshman Alex Hanson (Burnsville, Minn.) and sophomore Jeff Dahlen (San Juan Capistrano, Calif./Capistrano) all made the consolation final of the 200-yard backstroke finishing fourth, sixth and ninth, respectively. Johnson’s time of 1:54.43 is a NCAA provisional mark. In all, the Tartans had seven swimmers compete in the finals of the 200-yard backstroke.

Junior Tom McConnell (Baltimore, Md./Friends School of Baltimore) had a strong showing in the 500-yard freestyle with a fifth place finish in the consolation final. He tied his career-best time of 4:42.59 which he hit last year at the University Athletic Association Championships. Freshman Josh Mathews (Upper Falls, Md./Perry Hall), freshman Frank Olechnowicz (Alexandria, Va./Thomas Jefferson Science Tech) and sophomore Jonas Altman-Kurosaki (New York, N.Y./Stuyvesant) made the bonus final of the event finishing seventh through ninth.

Sophomore Jason Huber (Cherry Hill, N.J.) and junior Brad Henderson (Solon, Ohio) had the evening’s best showing for the Tartans with fifth and sixth places overall in the 200-yard breaststroke. The pair also had provisional qualifying marks with times of 2:06.39 and 2:07.10 in the preliminary round. Sophomore Andrew Seo (Irvine, Calif./Northwood) finished second in the consolation final of the same event with a time of 2:10.06, a season-best.

Seniors Patrick Snyder (Marlton, N.J./St. Joseph’s Prep) and Michael Bailey (New Kent, Va.) made the finals in the 100-yard freestyle with Snyder finishing ninth in the consolation final while Bailey took third in the bonus final with a career-best 46.92.

Henderson also competed in the consolation final of the 200-yard IM qualifying with a team season-best 1:56.50 and finished seventh.

The Tartans finished the first half of the season and will be idle from competition until traveling to Case Western Reserve for a dual meet at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, January, 12.