Swimmers Set All-American Times at Easterns

Brunswick set a high-water mark with a fourth-place finish at the 119^th Eastern Interscholastic Swimming & Diving Championships at Franklin and Marshall College on Saturday. The program-best finish at the largest prep school aquatic event in the country saw some remarkable results for the Brunswick squad.

 

In the men’s competition, Brunswick finished with 426 points, just one point behind third-place Malvern Prep (Pa.), as Andover won the event with a total of 610 points.

 

In the 11 swimming events, Brunswick collected five new school records, two automatic All-American results in the relays and three individual times that received All-American Consideration (AAC).

 

This is the only the third time the Bruins attended the Easterns, as the team finished seventh in 2017 and sixth in 2018.

 

Brunswick opened up the two-day event with an automatic All-American time in the 200-medley relay. Cole Pierce, Alexander Hazlett, Marcus Hodgson and Keegan Drew finished fourth (1:32.59) and set a school record in the process.

 

The Bruins scored valuable team points in five of six swimming events on Friday, posting top-10 finishes in each of the five races. In the 100-fly, Marcus Hodgson (3rd place) and Christian Farricker (4^th place) each swam AAC times, while combining for 53 team points.

 

At the end of Friday, Brunswick was in third place (246 points), trailing Andover (302) and eventual second-place finisher, Episcopal Academy (251.5).

 

On Saturday, without a representative in the one-meter diving event, Brunswick lost some ground. However, excellent team depth helped close the gap in the remaining six swimming events.

 

In the finals of the 100-free, Marcus Hodgson’s school-record and AAC time of 45.23 earned the Bruins a ninth-place finish, as teammate Keegan Drew finished in 10^th place. The duo added 37 more team points to the Brunswick total.

 

Three Bruins scored points in both the 500-free and 100-back, as the six swimmers added a total of 71 points. With those points, Brunswick moved back into fourth place with two events remaining. Christian Farricker set a school record (50.93) in the 100-back, earning a ninth-place finish.

 

In the penultimate race, Alex Hazlett finished the 100-breast in 11^th place, closing the points gap to third place to 13 points.

 

In the final race of the day, the 400-free relay, Christian Farricker, Pierce, Drew and Hodgson bested a preliminary, school-record time with a blistering automatic All-American time of 3:01.65 in the finals. The quartet finished second, giving the Bruins their final 52 points of the event.

Brunswick wraps up the season with two more events. The first is the FAA Championships at Hopkins on Saturday, February 23, followed by the New England Championships, hosted by Deerfield, beginning on Saturday, March 2.

 

 

Day 1 Results:

 

4^th Place – (52 team points)

Relay: Cole Pierce, Alexander Hazlett, Marcus Hodgson, Keegan Drew

*1:32.59 School record time

*Automatic All-American time

 

6^th Place – Keegan Drew (24 team points)

*49.23, School record time

* 50.93, School record

2^nd Place – (52 team points)

Relay: Christian Farricker, Cole Pierce, Keegan Drew, Marcus Hodgson 

*3:01.65 School record time

*Automatic All-American time