Middletown, Conn. - The Colby Men's Swimming and Diving team traveled to Wesleyan to compete in the four day long NESCAC Swimming and Diving Championships from the 16th-19th. The Mules ended up taking 4th out of the 11 total teams grabbing a total of 915 points which is a big step forward from last years 7th place finish with 684.5 points. With that said, Head Coach Tom Burton was voted as the 2023 NESCAC Swim Coach of the Year by his peers and is the first Colby coach to win the award as he guided the Mules to their best placement in program history.

To get things started, Neil Mortimer led the way snatching two gold medals for Colby, first in the 50 butterfly with a time of 20.99 which breaks not only a school record but a NESCAC record as well and then in the 100 butterfly with a time of 47.33 (school record). Brandon Xiong got on the board grabbing a third place finish in the 50 backstroke at a time of 22.79, a new school record. Mortimer also took a third place finish but in the 50 freestyle (20.17, school record) with Shaun Kronenwetter right behind in fifth with a time of 20.37. Kronenwetter improved for the 100 freestyle tying for third with a time of 44.96. Lastly, Alexander MacLennan placed fourth in the 200 individual medley at a time of 1:50.30 (school record). 

As for top five finishes in the team events, the Mules got off to a great start taking silver in the 200 freestyle relay (Mortimer, Kronenwetter, Xiong, MacLennan) with a time of 121.14, good for a new school record. The same group kept up the fight taking fifth in the 400 medley relay placing a time of 3:17.96 (school record) and even third for the 200 medley relay at 1:28.88 (school record). Then with a different group, as Carson Rehkopf stepped in with Mortimer, Kronenwetter, and Xiong, they managed to take fourth place with a time of 3:02.47 in the 400 freestyle relay. 

Now the Mules will head onto NCAA zone diving regionals on the 24th-25th and wrap up the season with NCAA Championships on March 15th-18th.