Waterville, ME
December 6, 2025

The Colby Men's Swimming and Diving Team competed against fellow Maine schools, including NESCAC members Bowdoin College and Bates College in a 3 session meet and came away with the victory at the Maine College Invitational. This win marks the 4th time in school history that the Mules have won the Invitational.  The meet would come down to the 3rd session where the Mules would have one of their strongest efforts as a team and come away with the win.

Senior Brandon Xiong led the way with three individual events (50 Backstroke, 50 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke) wins as well as achieving an NCAA B cut in the 50 freestyle and setting meet records in all 3. He was joined by freshman Brendan Kirberger who won both the 500 Freestyle and 1650 Freestyle where he set meet records as well. His times in both of those events were also 2nd in school history as well as First year Colby Swimming records. Fellow freshman Alex Ruckel-Bekefi also added his name to the Colby record books as he set First year records in both the 50 (2nd in school history) and 100 Butterfly (3rd in school history). In addition, Amaan Siddiqui  set a First year record with his swim in the 200 Freestyle which is 2nd in school History.

The depth of the Colby team really was what led to the victory. In the final individual event, the 100 IM, the Mules put 4 swimmers in the top 8, including seniors Xiong, Alexander MacLennan and Noam Reinhorn to help keep them in the lead and seal the win. Overall there were 30 individual additions to the All time Colby top 20 as well as 5 relay entries. (full list below)

The Mules had a historic fall with their first ever win over Amherst Collge and continuing with this great win at the Invite. After finals they will head to Key Largo for a week of training on the 16th. The team will return to campus and get ready for their first meet on January 10th against Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT. The meet start time is 1:00 pm.

Matthew Church (500 Fr - 18th, 1000 Fr -14th, 1650 Fr - 10th)
Shepard Kerscher (50 Br -13th, 100 IM - 19th)
Brendan Kirberger (200 Fr - 8th, 500 Fr - 2nd, 1000 Fr - 4th, 1650 - 2nd)
Noam Reinhorn (100 Bk -18th, 100 IM - 9th)
Alex Ruckel-Bekefi (50 Fr - 20th, 50 Fl - 2nd, 100 Fl - 3rd, 200 Fl - 5th, 100 IM - 4th)
Breacan Shea (1650 - 13th, 100 Bk - 17th, 200 Bk - 16th)
Amaan Siddiqui (500 Fr - 11th, 200 Fr - 2nd, 100 Fr - 8th)
Todd Siekman (50 Fl -10th, 100 Fl - 11th)
Henry Stimson (50 Bk -13th, 50 Br - 18th, 100 IM - 10th)
Brandon Xiong (50 Fr - 3rd, 100 Fr - 9th, 100 IM - 2nd)