Waterville, Maine - The Colby Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving teams remained home this weekend to host the Maine Collegiate Invite. The men's team placed first out of seven teams, while the women placed fourth out of eight schools. Bates College, Bowdoin College, University of Maine-Orono, Wheaton College (Ma), Husson University, Maine Maritime Academy, and University of New England all made the trip for the two-day event.
From Coach Tom Burton, "It was an amazing two days of competition and quite possibly the best mid-season invitational results and performances ever by both teams." Specifically, Colby's combined scores put them above seven of the eight teams with a total number of 1,626.50 points, just shy of Bates' total score of 1722 points. The women's team earned 662 points, while the men's team tallied 964.50 points.
In the Men's 50 and 100 Butterfly, Neil Mortimer won with times of 21.84 and 48.97. Alexander MacLennan took first in both the Men's 200 IM (1:53.30) and in the Men's 200 Breaststroke (2:07.26). Brandon Xiong proved dominant in the Men's 50 and 100 Backstroke with times of 23.14 and 49.74 respectively. Skylar Yoham claimed first in the Men's 400 IM with a time of 4:05.63. In the Women's 200 Backstroke, Annabelle Mullin won with a time of 2:04.57. Spencer Cohen dominated the field with a time of 1:49.98 in the Men's 200 Backstroke. Lastly, Colby had a strong and unstoppable team in the Men's 200 Medley Relay that was composed of Xiong, Brian Brogan, Mortimer, and Allen Zhu.
Xiong (twice), Mullin, and MacLennan all set new Colby records, and divers Avery Rappaport and Eleanor McGrath hit NCAA Regional qualifying marks.
The Mules look to take their dominant and winning energy into their next competition, which will be on January 3, in sunny Key Largo, Florida, at the Orange Bowl Classic.
